Iraq’s prime minister on Sunday promised sweeping measures to tackle climate change, which has affected millions of people across the country, including plans to meet a third of the country’s electricity demand. countries with renewable energies.
Climate change has compounded the country’s problems for years. Droughts and increasing water salinity have destroyed crops, animals and farms, and dried up entire aquifers. Creeping sandstorms have sent dozens of people to hospital with respiratory problems. Climate change has also played a role in Iraq’s fight against cholera.
“More than seven million citizens have been affected in Iraq…and hundreds of thousands have been displaced because they have lost their livelihoods which depended on agriculture and hunting,” the prime minister said. Mohammed Shia al-Soudani, in his opening speech from Iraq. Climate Conference, a two-day event in Basra.
Al-Sudani said the Iraqi government is working on a national plan to combat climate change which consists of a series of measures it hopes to take by 2030. The plan includes the construction of renewable energy plants, the modernization of obsolete and inefficient irrigation techniques, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. , fight against desertification and protect the country’s biodiversity.
One of the projects is a major reforestation initiative in which Iraq would plant 5 million trees across the country. Baghdad also plans to meet a third of the country’s electricity demand with renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
Al-Sudani said he also wants to hold a regional conference on climate change in Baghdad in the near future.
Events in neighboring countries have also contributed to water problems in Iraq.
Iraq depends on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for almost all of its water needs. Rivers flow into the country from Turkey and Iran. As these countries built dams that blocked or diverted water, shortages worsened in Iraq.
Climate change and its impact on water resources and agriculture has also had an economic cost, destroying people’s livelihoods and making it more likely that Iraq will have to increase its imports of commodities that were previously produced at large scale in the country, such as wheat . The government has in the past subsidized seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to soften the blow of rising costs on wheat farmers and keep production levels high, but cut them two years ago.