ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi President Barham Salih said Sunday that addressing climate change is a "national priority" on World Environment Day, and praised the country's young people for their awareness of the need to protect the environment.
Salih addressed the need for fighting climate change as a "major national priority" in Iraq, calling it an "existential threat to the country's future," in a statement delivered in Baghdad in with the presence of Iraq's environment minister Jassim al-Falahi, and UN representatives, state media reported.
"Desertification affects 39% of our lands and water scarcity is negatively affecting all parts of the country and is leading to a loss in fertility of agricultural lands due to salinization," he said, warning that Iraq's water demands are increasing with an increase in population as he claimed the country's population will nearly double to 80 million by 2050.
To address the threats posed by climate change, Salih referred to a project launched by his presidency last year titled the Mesopotamia Revitalization Project, aiming to take preventative, positive measures such as planting trees and promoting the generation of clean, renewable energy, as well as improved water management in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Declining water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers coupled with water evaporation in dams and outdated, inefficient irrigation methods are drastically degrading the country's water resources, the president continued. He expects the country's water deficit to hit 10.8 billion cubic meters by 2035, citing a study by Iraq's water resources ministry.
Salih expressed strong support for the Iraqi youth in his statement, saying they are "a major contributor to the issue of environmental protection, and they have excellent initiatives in this regard."
Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity. The effects of climate change are surfacing at an alarming rate in the country, with Iranian and Turkish damming of the country's rivers exacerbating the phenomenon.
A senior advisor at the Iraqi water resources ministry warned in April that the country's water reserves have halved since last year, due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall, and declining water levels.
A collective effort is required by all countries in the region to combat climate change, according to the president, as he claimed that the devastation caused by a worsening climate does not exclude certain countries but rather impacts them all. As such, individual steps are insufficient for addressing the issue, because "sand storms, water scarcity, high temperatures, and desertification are cross-border risks that will only be addressed with high-level joint international coordination and planning."
In his own statement to mark World Environment Day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments to “urgently to prioritize climate action and environmental protection through policy decisions that promote sustainable progress,” adding that the world can “no longer ignore the alarm bells that ring louder every day.”
