Roza Otunbayeva, head of UNAMA, said in a meeting with officials of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency that UNAMA will try to make useful decisions about Afghanistan at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The conference is scheduled to start on Monday and will be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
She also said the conference will provide the basis for the participation of an Afghan delegation at similar international conferences in the future.
According to Otunbayeva, UNAMA is trying to attract international aid for Afghanistan.
Mutiul Haq Khals, the Director General of the National Environmental Protection Agency, said at the meeting that people are suffering from the negative effects of climate change and the issue should be looked at from a human point of view and not politicized.
He said if joint steps are taken in this field, the grounds for practical measures will be provided.
Climate change is having a significant impact on Afghanistan, resulting in a range of serious challenges.
One of the most immediate and pressing consequences of the climate crisis in Afghanistan is its impact on food security across the country.
With the country’s economy reliant on agricultural production, particularly rain-fed agriculture, changes in precipitation patterns and extreme weather events have an extremely detrimental effect to the health of soil, crops and livestock.
Climate change has made erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, unseasonal frosts and flash floods increasingly common in Afghanistan and Central Asia, wreaking havoc on food production.
These deficits mean rural producers are unable to feed their families from their land – deficits that are also driving up market prices.
Humanitarian concerns have been raised repeatedly over Afghanistan being left out of United Nations climate negotiations and meetings.
The country has been left out of such meetings since the Islamic Emirate regained power in 2021.