BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — For the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Afghanistan sent a delegation to the United Nations climate talks on Monday in a bid to get help to cope to global warming.

Matuil Haq Khalis, director of the country’s environmental protection agency, told The Associated Press that Afghanistan needs international support to deal with extreme weather conditions such as erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts and flash floods.

“All countries need to join hands and tackle the problem of climate change,” Khalis said, speaking through a translator at talks taking place this year in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Afghanistan has been hit hard by climate change, with a recent assessment by climate experts ranks it as the sixth most climate-vulnerable country in the world.

In March, northern Afghanistan experienced heavy rains which caused flash flooding, killing more than 300 people. Climatologists have found that extreme precipitation has increased by 25% over the past 40 years in the country.

Matiul Haq Khalis, head of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency, speaks to the media during the UN COP29 Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Peter Dejong

Khalis said Afghanistan had prepared national action plans to address climate change and would update its climate targets in the coming months. He said the country has great potential in wind and solar energy, but needs the international community to develop it.

He added that the Afghan delegation was grateful to the Azerbaijani government for inviting them. The delegation will have observer status at the talks, as the Taliban do. not have official recognition like the government of Afghanistan.

Joanna Depledge, a climate historian at the University of Cambridge in England, said Afghanistan should be able to attend.

“As a global forum, there are a whole host of politically unsavory states with all sorts of appalling records of one sort or another. Where to draw the line? » she said.

Responding to a question on the UN assessment that women are more vulnerable than men to climate impacts, Khalis said that “the impact of climate change has no boundaries, it can impact women, children, men, plants or animals, so it requires collective work to solve this problem.

Khalis said he had requested bilateral negotiations with a number of countries, including the United States, and would be happy to sit down with them if the request was granted.

“We have not participated in the last three conferences… but we are happy to be here this time and to be able to convey the message of the Afghan people to the international community,” Khalis said.

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Associated Press journalists Olivia Zhang, Peter Dejong, Aleksandar Furtula and Joshua A. Bickel contributed to this report.

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