SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The United Nations warned children and young people in Iraq are “the most” at risk of the impacts of climate change, calling for urgent action address water scarcity, caused by drought and restrictions of flows from Iran and Turkey.
UNICEF said children and young people are at medium-high climate risk in Iraq, with vulnerable groups and certain regions of the country at a higher risk.
“The climate crisis is a child rights crisis,” the UNICEF said in a report on Monday.
“It poses an unprecedented threat to the development, survival, and potential of all children and young people, everywhere in Iraq,” it added. “It represents an absolute injustice to the next generation.”
Iraq has suffered extreme water shortages in many areas in recent years.
This is owing in large part to upstream dam-building in Iran and Turkey, but also to factors relating to climate change and droughts, which have affected the wider region.
Iraq is mostly desert. Its inhabitable areas are fed by the Tigris from Turkey, the Euphrates from Turkey and Syria, and a network of rivers from Iran.
The Iraqi water ministry said earlier this year that water flows from Iran and Turkey were reduced by 50 percent throughout the summer.
The UNICEF called for urgent action to address the water scarcity and its impact on children and young people’s lives in Iraq, as world leaders gather in Glasgow to attend the COP26 climate summit.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told leaders at the summit on global warming that failure would mean they have to come back with improved pledges every year rather than according to current 5-year timetable.
“We are digging our own graves,” Guterres said. “Our planet is changing before our eyes – from the ocean depths to mountaintops, from melting glaciers to relentless extreme weather events.”
The summit is aimed at forging an agreement to curb carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) below pre-industrial levels.
The world has already warmed 1.1°C. Current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7°C by the year 2100.
The U.N. agency called on the Iraqi government and businesses to increase investment in climate adaptation and resilience in key services for children and young people.
It also urged them to ensure the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic “is green, low-carbon and inclusive, so that the capacity of future generations to address and respond to the climate crisis is not compromised”.
