Afghan Taliban officials will attend a major United Nations climate conference that starts this week, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, the first time they have attended since the former insurgents took power in 2021.
The COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan's capital Baku will be among the highest-profile multilateral events attended by Taliban administration officials since they took control in Kabul after 20 years of fighting NATO-backed forces.
The U.N. has not allowed the Taliban to take up Afghanistan's seat at the General Assembly, and Afghanistan's government is not formally recognized by U.N. member states, largely due to the Taliban's restrictions on women's education and freedom of movement.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said officials from the National Environmental Protection Agency had arrived in Azerbaijan to attend the COP conference. The Taliban took over the agency when they returned to power as U.S.-led forces withdrew.
Taliban officials have taken part in U.N.-organized meetings on Afghanistan in Doha, and Taliban ministers have attended forums in China and Central Asia in the past two years.
But the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Bureau of the COP has deferred consideration of Afghanistan’s participation since 2021, in effect freezing the country out of the talks.
Afghan NGOs have also struggled to attend the climate negotiations in recent years.
Host Azerbaijan invited the Afghan environment agency officials to COP29 as observers, enabling them to "potentially participate in periphery discussions and potentially hold bilateral meetings," a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Because the Taliban are not formally recognized within the U.N. system as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, the source said, the officials cannot receive credentials to take part in the proceedings of full member states.
Azerbaijan's presidency declined to comment.
The Taliban has closed schools and universities to female students over the age of around 12. It also announced a set of wide-ranging morality laws this year that require women to cover their faces in public and restrict their travel outside the home without a male guardian.
The Taliban says it respects women's rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law.
Afghanistan is considered one of the countries worst affected by climate change. Flash floods have killed hundreds this year, and the heavily agriculture-dependent country has suffered through one of the worst droughts in decades. Many subsistence farmers, who make up much of the population, face deepening food insecurity.
Some advocates have criticized international isolation of the Taliban, saying it only hurts the Afghan people.
"Afghanistan is one of the countries that is really left behind on the needs that it has," said Habib Mayar, deputy general secretary of the g7+, an intergovernmental organization of countries affected by conflict.
"It is a double price that they are paying," Mayar said. "There is lack of attention, lack of connection with the international community, and then there are increasing humanitarian needs."
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
25 Comments
Login to comment
Fighto!
Something could happen to the plane carrying these Taliban "leaders" - either upon landing in Azerbaijan, or on the return flight, leading to a catastrophic crash.
Just saying.
Zaphod
...as if any of these guys care about any "climate". It is about money for all of them... money to receive from abroad for the Talibans, and money harvest from the taxpayers for the Western leaders.
Peter14
Well the Taliban will try to get money from other attendees, but they should be shunned by all. As for the rest, taking climate change action ahead one inch at a time when they need to be finding a way forward so much faster and effectively.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Well they might have a more positive climate vision than Mr. Trump.
Peter14
Only because Trump has no vision, but I'm betting the Taliban dont either.
bass4funk
He does, focus on the U.S. first, get the country and then focus on climate issues
wallace
The US will not be isolated from the climate change effects. We have seen recently two very powerful hurricanes hit Florida. The pollution level of an Afghan is much less than 1/100th of an American
WA4TKG
Climate Change Taliban....what's that?, actually washing your clothes?
WA4TKG
Yup, something COULD happen to the plane, just like the leader of Wagner
TaiwanIsNotChina
And when will he be done "getting the country"? After the expense of removing 10 million people or after the massive trade war? Also when will he be done with "drill baby drill"?
fallaffel
I imagine the Taliban is going to talk to the oil and gas companies that go to the COP to show how "interested" they are in climate change.
Zaphod
wallace
The climate always changes, and there are always hurricanes.
Not sure what you mean; if you are saying that the GDP and consumption level in Sharia Afghanistan is low, sure. About pollution, check out the trash river in Kabul.
dutch
Sounds about right.
A terrorist group attending a conference to extract money from the people they want to kill using an excuse that doesn't exist.
WoodyLee
The new world order Bow for the west or else.
wallace
Hurricanes have become more powerful and more frequent. Increased flooding.
China, America, and India are the three largest polluters.
dutch
False. recent years have seen unprecedentedly weak.
Globally, 2022 had the 2nd weakest hurricanes in the satellite era (1980-2022)
https://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/index.php?arch&loc=global
of what, wallace? Be specific please.
As usual, your hatred of the United States has clouded your judgment .
dutch
What the environmental loonies refuse to acknowledge is CO2 is good for the earth. More CO2 = more greening of the earth.
wallace
I don't have hatred of the United States. My parents were Americans. I have a very large American family.
Stating facts is not hatred.
Are you an American BTW?
The three countries causing the greatest environmental pollution are China, America, and India in that order.
"Record high sea surface temperatures were a key reason why US scientists forecast an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season for 2024. The high temperatures are mainly due to long-term greenhouse gas emissions. Secondly, a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to more intense rainfall."
1glenn
Afghanistan, sitting on three tectonic plates, has a huge geothermal energy potential, but currently does not have a single geothermal energy plant.
ClippetyClop
It's also the reason why we have had a warm but overcast October and now November in Japan.
This also ruins the beauty of the Japanese 紅葉. A few warm, sunny days with cold, crisp nights leads to more vivid colours. Overcast, warm days and nights do the opposite.
If ever an incentive was needed to tackle climate change in Japan was needed, this might be it.
Sven Asai
The climate conference can be very 'proud' to have such kind of participants. Unbelievably disgusting.
Peter14
Thats it, keep denying climate change crisis right up until it kills you, and your family, because that just makes good sense right?
At what point do you acknowledge it is made continually worse by man made pollution? Astounding ignorance. You want to believe its a hoax until your final breath. Future generations cant wait for people like you to come around to the truth of the science proving its happening. sorry to say people that deny it are the very reason its happening and the reason it continues. In the end your struggle is to end humanity, and your going to get your wish.
Zaphod
Peter14
If you are that convinced of the narrative that human made CO2 will kill all of us, you should demand radical measures like stopping all immigration totally, stopping all sorts of development aid i the third word, and declare nuclear war on China and India.
Just installing cute (large China made) windmills and (totally China made) solar panels and promoting (China made) EVs in a couple of virtue-signalling Western countries does NOT change one thing.
The hysterical narrative and the proposed "solution" simply do not match. Cognitive dissonance anyone?
TaiwanIsNotChina
He says while expecting payments from the West.
blue in green
U.N. = United Nations.
Is the Taliban a sovereign nation now,
or a terrorist group that bought a spot at the bargaining table of the U.N.
Things clearing up any?