Iraq and its neighbours around the Gulf “are on the front lines to confront the effects of climate change,” President Abdul Latif Rashid said at the COP28 conference, noting that this region will see temperatures rise even if the world meets its goal to limit global warming to less than two degrees as set out in the Paris climate agreement.
“We are - starting now - suffering from high temperatures, dust storms, and water scarcity. And all of these changes do not recognize the borders of countries,” he said.
“Therefore, from this platform, we call on the neighbouring countries in the Gulf to make more efforts to strive together as one negotiating group and with a unified position that demonstrates the difficulty of our climate future to the world and seeks to guarantee the rights of our peoples, and to establish a regional grouping that includes the eight riparian countries on the Gulf, which will be more exposed than others to the effects of dangerous climate changes.”
The Middle East is heating up almost twice as fast as the global average.
Iraq is considered one of the world’s nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Scorching temperatures, lack of rain, desertification, and increased dust and sand storms have “led to an increase in poverty and an increase in the rate of internal displacement and external migration,” Rashid said.
Iraq’s southern marshlands are drying up and a study published earlier this week warned that the Nineveh Plains in the north is an “emergent hotspot” exposed to the risks of climate induced displacement.
Rashid said that Iraq, which joined the Paris agreement late, aims to end associated gas emissions in its oil sector by 2030 and improve efficiency in its electrical grid in order to cut emissions.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani are also attending the COP28 conference that runs through December 12 and brings together world leaders, businesses, NGOs, and civil society activists.
On the first day of the conference, a landmark deal was reached to establish a Loss and Damage Fund that will help poorer nations pay for the damage caused by climate change.
