By Miran Hussein Hassan
Climate change is one of the global issues that currently occupies the world and has become a significant topic on the international community’s agenda, similar to extremism, energy, and major global conflicts. This is because the entire world believes that this issue is not limited to a single continent, region, or country, but is a global concern. As a result, it has become a hot topic for research centers, global media, and has even become part of election campaigns in developed countries.
Therefore, there is currently an international effort to find and address the causes of this problem on a global scale. Climate change is a natural phenomenon with multiple factors contributing to its occurrence, such as the release of gases from all combustion processes (e.g., factories, automobiles, forest burning, etc.), urban expansion, and other natural phenomena. However, the emission of gases and smoke is the biggest cause of climate change.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity and the entire world without distinction. This international phenomenon and its consequences affect the whole world, all continents, and regions without discrimination. It has several consequences such as rising temperatures, desertification, floods, etc. These problems lead to other issues like environmental migration, damage to agriculture and industry sectors, and the spread of diseases, among others. Although nature and humans are responsible for the emergence of this problem, it also has political, economic, and security dimensions. Therefore, this issue is multifaceted and needs to be dealt with carefully, comprehensively, and with importance, not just as a natural phenomenon that the international community pays attention to, because it is as much a political, security, and economic issue as it is a natural one.
Climate change, despite being fundamentally a natural phenomenon, becomes a phenomenon related to political, security, economic, and humanitarian affairs. This is because climate change leads to several problems such as rising temperatures, desertification, acid rain, reduced rainfall, submersion of islands and coasts, floods, and storms. These phenomena cause environmental migration, damage to agriculture and industry, water disputes, loss of livelihood opportunities in hot regions, conflicts over natural gas, border disputes, etc., thus causing major problems for all of humanity.
Currently, there are several international efforts to address this issue because there is a global understanding that this is not a domestic issue but a global one that requires all countries to work together to solve.
The Kurdistan Region, as a non-state actor, should participate in all formal and informal international meetings regarding climate change, similar to what happened at COP28 held in the UAE, where the Kurdistan Regional Government participated in the summit. This is to ensure the Kurdistan Region’s participation as an international party in all crucial decisions made at these summits and meetings related to climate change. On the other hand, the Kurdistan Region needs to participate in international cooperation to address this international problem and be involved in all international projects and special programs in the field of mitigating the effects and consequences of climate change. It should create partnerships with international parties and benefit from international grants given to countries working to reduce the impacts of climate change, especially since the Kurdistan Region is located in an area where the effects of climate change are most evident and is considered one of the regions most affected by climate change. At the same time, it is necessary to develop the field of environmental protection and try to adhere to international standards related to addressing climate change and develop institutions specialized in this field.