ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has predicted a new wave of migration spurred on by climate change that will see people from the Middle East seeking out life in Europe.
“If urgent steps are not taken, migration may start from one region to another. This is no longer a future concern, we live in those days. This migration has started and demographic change in these areas has also started,” Barzani said on Sunday at a conference in Erbil titled Drought and the Impact of Climate Change on the Political, Economic, and Demographic Situation of Iraq.
This migration will not be contained within Iraq, he added.
“If we cannot provide for all their needs, where will they go? They will head towards another place, and in this case, I believe a huge migration wave will begin from the Middle East to Europe,” Barzani said.
“We cannot look at this issue as a local Iraqi issue. It is true that Iraq is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, more than any other place, but if this migration starts in Iraq, it will not stop at the Kurdistan Region,” he added.
Throughout Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, villages and rural communities are seeing their ways of life evaporate because of rising temperatures and water shortages caused by climate change and resource mismanagement. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been tracking climate-induced displacement in central and southern Iraq since 2018 and has documented more than 140,000 people displaced.
Barzani said that European nations should help Iraq and the Kurdistan Region stop the potential wave of climate migrants. “I think everyone must come together. The Europeans should come and help us find a solution, how we can resolve this issue at the root,” he said, adding that climate migration is accompanied by security, economic, cultural and political issues for Europe.
Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable nation to the impact of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the United Nations. It is facing a severe water shortage because of reduced precipitation and mismanagement. Scorching temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius were recorded in Iraq in 2023. It is losing land to desertification.
Barzani said that in order to combat climate change, the Kurdistan Region needs “to protect nature, prevent desertification and wasting of water.”
He also noted that such measures will sustain the Kurdistan Region’s population and will attract people from areas damaged by climate change.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, who also spoke at the conference, warned of the severity of the climate crisis in Iraq, saying that the issue has “adverse implications” across the country.
“The ongoing effects of climate change have led to numerous threats, notably the escalation of desertification and the destruction of agricultural land. Data indicates that approximately hundreds of square kilometers of agricultural land in Iraq transform into desert annually,” he said.
He said that Baghdad and Erbil need to act quickly “to develop immediate and long-term strategies to address the risks posed by climate change, adapt to its consequences, and prevent disasters.”