Afghanistan world's sixth vulnerable, least ready country to address impacts of climate change: UN
Dec 06, 2023
Kabul [Afghanistan], December 6 : The UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan Daniel Peter Endres has said that Afghanistan ranks as the world's sixth vulnerable, least-ready country to address the impacts of climate change, TOLO News reported.
TOLO News is an Afghan news channel.
Endres expressed his concerns over the effects of climate change in Afghanistan.
In a video released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Afghanistan, Endres said: "Over the past 70 years, Afghanistan has experienced rising temperatures, declining rainfalls and unprecedented levels of deforestation."
Meanwhile, the Taliban-appointed spokesman of the State Ministry for Disaster Management, Mullah Jan Saiq, said that if the current impacts of climate change are not addressed in Afghanistan, it will cause huge damage to the country. The Taliban ruled government has also objected to not being invited to COP28 Climate summit in Dubai despite being a country vulnerable to Climate change.
Mullah Janan Saaiq, spokesman of the disaster management ministry, said in a video that Afghanistan is affected by climate change and that the representative of the Islamic Emirate should have been invited to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) in the United Arab Emirates. Mullah Janan Saaiq said if the representative of the Islamic Emirate was invited to the meeting, after the discussion, they would have focused on reducing greenhouse gases and its dangers in Afghanistan. According to Saaiq, nearly 20 million people in Afghanistan were affected by climate change last year
TOLO News also reached out to some farmers who shared their deep concerns about climate change's effect on their harvests.
A farmer, Sadiq Khan, said: "There is a severe drought in the country. Farming is very challenging and the harvests are not good in their seasons."
This comes as the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP 28 hosted by the UAE invited no representative from Afghanistan.
