In a letter addressed to the Board of Environmental Protection and Improvement, the Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers approved a petition from the board to establish a climate change office. The office will consist of two departments: Mitigation and Loss and Damage.
The office will be a separate entity from the meteorology and seismology directorate, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, according to Abdulrazaq Khailani, the spokesperson for the environmental board.
“The climate change office is not linked to the Kurdistan Region’s meteorology and seismology directorate. This office has functioned in the past as well, but it had not been independent,” Khailani told Rudaw’s Soran Hussein on Tuesday.
Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable to climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the UN. It is facing a severe water shortage because of reduced precipitation, higher temperatures, and waste mismanagement.
Scorching temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius were recorded in Iraq in 2023, coupled with water scarcity, desertification, and reduced rainfall.
According to the UN, over 130,000 people in southern Iraq are prone to displacement by the end of 2023 due to the effects of climate change.
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