According to the United Nations report, Afghanistan is one of the six countries most vulnerable to climate change. One of the major factors contributing to climate change is the excessive emission of greenhouse gases, primarily by industrialized nations. Afghanistan, lacking significant industrial visibility, contributes negligibly to the production and emission of greenhouse gases. Reports indicate that our country accounts for a mere 0.8% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, yet it suffers severely from the impacts of these emissions. For this reason, the United Nations annually receives funds from countries with higher contributions to greenhouse gas production and allocates them to countries most affected by climate change, helping them adapt and increase their resilience to these environmental changes—a budget from which Afghanistan is currently deprived.
Since the collapse of the government of Afghanistan and the absence of a functioning legal authority, UN assistance in climate change mitigation has been suspended. Meanwhile, the ruling group itself is implicated in environmental degradation and has not declared any specific plans to combat environmental destruction and climate change.
Droughts that persist, shifts in rainfall patterns, devastating and awe-inspiring floods, rapid glacier melting, increased particulate matter, and more are among Afghanistan’s most tangible consequences of climate change. These events have imposed significant human and financial losses on the Afghan people, adversely affecting household livelihoods.
The environmental protection administration established in Afghanistan is now managed by the Taliban. Like all government bodies, Taliban leadership has appointed several clerics as heads and officials who have no familiarity with environmental issues and do not prioritize environmental conservation. Placing non-professionals at the helm of a professional environmental protection agency is not only hostile toward the institution itself but ultimately represents overt hostility toward the environment.
A regime and government that values the environment and climate change would not politically confront these phenomena and would appoint knowledgeable and professional individuals to relevant positions.
While the environmental protection administration did not receive much attention during previous governments, it has lost its importance under the Taliban regime. Due to the Taliban’s failure to disclose their annual government budget, it is unclear how much budget has been allocated to this agency. It can be speculated that the entire budget allocated to this critical agency is not even equivalent to one-fourth of the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’s budget. Disregarding the environmental protection administration is in itself a manifestation of hostility towards both the environment and its safeguarding institutions.
In addition to these issues, the Taliban also exhibit other blatant hostilities towards the environment. One of these is the widespread deforestation and trafficking of timber to Pakistan from eastern provinces. Despite ostensibly establishing military units to prevent timber smuggling to Pakistan, the destructive deforestation process has not halted, nor has the timber trafficking route been closed. Therefore, the Taliban’s negligence in preventing deforestation amounts to a form of hostility towards the environment. Since seizing power, there have been several significant forest fires in the country, for which the Taliban have been accused of negligence and indifference in firefighting efforts. Speculations exist regarding the intentional nature of these fires to facilitate deforestation.
Reckless and unprofessional mining extraction practices and dumping of waste in open environments are further examples of environmental destruction by the Taliban. The unchecked extraction and non-professional transport of coal specifically harm the environment and ultimately jeopardize the health of the country’s citizens. Since taking power, the Taliban have unprecedentedly increased mining activities, including coal extraction, with China and Pakistan, as major buyers, purchasing these minerals from the group at minimal costs. To fund their regime’s expenses and enrich their leadership, the Taliban have focused extensively on increasing mining activities, leading to internal conflicts among various Taliban factions over control and the division of mining revenues. The reckless mining extraction by the Taliban across the country is essentially pillaging, and destroying the environment.
Under Taliban rule, the control over environmental destruction and climate change impacts, where the latter exacerbates the former, remains unaddressed. The current regime not only downplays these issues but also lacks representation in important international climate change forums. Instead, they contribute to environmental degradation. With the Taliban’s interference or neglect, forest fires are ignited and the process of deforestation continues. Droughts have worsened desertification trends. Qatari sheiks and other business partners of the Taliban freely travel to Afghanistan and engage in hunting endangered and rare bird species.
In Taliban governance, if floods occur, warnings are not adequately issued, and if they are, affected populations receive minimal aid after the fact. During flood events, Taliban machinery and manpower are not dispatched to assist the affected people. In such circumstances, concerns about further environmental destruction under the shadow of a group that accepts no responsibility and is unaccountable to anyone have increased. These concerns are valid and justified.
In Taliban rule, the length and breadth of citizens’s trousers are more important than ensuring human survival and the future of humanity.
You can read the Persian version of this analysis here:
