A climate conference opens in Iraq to try to face the challenges

The Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris, reached extremely low levels during the summer of 2022. © Hadi Mizban / AP

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It is held in the south of the country, in Basra, on the initiative of the Iraqi Prime Minister.

An operation aimed at drawing attention to the issues affecting the country, which is particularly fragile in the face of climate change. 

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With our correspondent in Baghdad,

At the opening of the conference, the Iraqi Prime Minister underlined the magnitude of the climate challenge in Iraq: more than seven million people are affected by drought, hundreds of thousands of displaced people have lost their means of subsistence for lack of water, in particular. 

The conclusion is drawn: Iraq can no longer ignore the consequences of climate change on its territory and its population. 

Last year, a dozen sandstorms in two months paralyzed Iraq, this month of February 2023 was marked by the first major droughts and desertification is progressing. 

On this first day of the conference, the government is therefore committed to planting five million trees across the country. 

A policy already attempted in 2006 in the city of Karbala but which ended in failure, the plantations had been neglected and the project forgotten. 

The cost of the various projects should be included in the state budget for the year 2023. 

But the officials present at the conference preferred not to go too far on the amount before the vote on it in Parliament. 

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