Zürcher Nachrichten - Taliban eye aid at their first UN climate talks since 2021 takeover

EUR -
AED 3.878302
AFN 71.749242
ALL 97.525604
AMD 409.321377
ANG 1.904439
AOA 961.910349
ARS 1053.932294
AUD 1.628575
AWG 1.902213
AZN 1.790242
BAM 1.942691
BBD 2.133504
BDT 126.267959
BGN 1.943862
BHD 0.397898
BIF 3120.391741
BMD 1.055905
BND 1.412237
BOB 7.301729
BRL 6.115776
BSD 1.056709
BTN 89.114002
BWP 14.337928
BYN 3.457966
BYR 20695.735728
BZD 2.129908
CAD 1.477881
CDF 3029.391515
CHF 0.934096
CLF 0.037686
CLP 1040.256286
CNY 7.620255
COP 4733.262588
CRC 539.579425
CUC 1.055905
CUP 27.981479
CVE 109.525933
CZK 25.312159
DJF 188.169168
DKK 7.460201
DOP 63.642956
DZD 141.520784
EGP 52.052706
ETB 128.968047
FJD 2.394951
GBP 0.832137
GEL 2.892848
GHS 17.064849
GMD 75.494393
GNF 9106.978473
GTQ 8.164904
GYD 221.068259
HKD 8.215906
HNL 26.678242
HTG 138.939036
HUF 408.053915
IDR 16665.082809
ILS 3.961201
INR 89.121015
IQD 1384.15986
IRR 44458.874743
ISK 147.214482
JMD 167.289076
JOD 0.748746
JPY 163.610398
KES 136.475624
KGS 91.021055
KHR 4281.31296
KMF 486.112178
KRW 1482.110007
KWD 0.324775
KYD 0.880558
KZT 520.805668
LAK 23205.412737
LBP 94621.406421
LKR 308.836013
LRD 199.181606
LSL 18.981714
LTL 3.117812
LVL 0.638706
LYD 5.119695
MAD 10.506404
MDL 19.040517
MGA 4930.959985
MKD 61.376887
MMK 3429.537875
MOP 8.465873
MRU 42.066135
MUR 49.669818
MVR 16.32479
MWK 1832.322479
MXN 21.74784
MYR 4.696693
MZN 67.498725
NAD 18.981714
NGN 1772.040765
NIO 38.889421
NOK 11.763176
NPR 142.58426
NZD 1.789864
OMR 0.406533
PAB 1.05667
PEN 4.004776
PGK 4.247539
PHP 61.947297
PKR 293.59637
PLN 4.336491
PYG 8246.742505
QAR 3.852404
RON 4.966447
RSD 116.752486
RUB 103.953819
RWF 1450.381683
SAR 3.967876
SBD 8.818132
SCR 14.353966
SDG 635.123573
SEK 11.576535
SGD 1.41496
SLE 24.076566
SOS 603.853863
SRD 37.252784
STD 21855.099237
SVC 9.245612
SZL 18.988587
THB 36.759214
TJS 11.25843
TMT 3.695667
TND 3.325758
TOP 2.473031
TRY 36.258016
TTD 7.180547
TWD 34.272035
TZS 2810.676253
UAH 43.655088
UGX 3877.832862
USD 1.055905
UYU 44.549386
UZS 13517.783663
VES 47.385869
VND 26761.909287
XAF 651.590999
XCD 2.853636
XDR 0.796055
XOF 651.590999
XPF 119.331742
YER 263.738618
ZAR 19.108288
ZMK 9504.409507
ZMW 28.905319
ZWL 340.000942
  • BCC

    3.8600

    144.99

    +2.66%

  • RBGPF

    -0.8500

    59.34

    -1.43%

  • CMSC

    0.1340

    24.674

    +0.54%

  • NGG

    -0.7500

    62.15

    -1.21%

  • GSK

    -0.4250

    35.095

    -1.21%

  • SCS

    0.0100

    13.68

    +0.07%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.24

    +0.15%

  • RIO

    -0.6900

    60.51

    -1.14%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0500

    7.11

    -0.7%

  • CMSD

    0.0560

    24.806

    +0.23%

  • VOD

    0.2550

    8.725

    +2.92%

  • AZN

    -0.2000

    64.99

    -0.31%

  • BCE

    -0.4100

    27.28

    -1.5%

  • RELX

    -0.5040

    46.086

    -1.09%

  • BTI

    0.0650

    35.305

    +0.18%

  • BP

    0.1850

    28.345

    +0.65%

Taliban eye aid at their first UN climate talks since 2021 takeover
Taliban eye aid at their first UN climate talks since 2021 takeover / Photo: Laurent THOMET - AFP

Taliban eye aid at their first UN climate talks since 2021 takeover

The first Afghan official to attend UN climate talks since the Taliban came to power told AFP Monday that his country hopes to benefit from a global finance deal under negotiation at COP29 in Baku.

Text size:

Heading a three-person team, former Taliban negotiator Matiul Haq Khalis stood out in the bustling halls of the conference in Azerbaijan's capital where delegates from nearly 200 countries began two weeks of talks.

The Taliban-led government, which is not internationally recognised, tried and failed to attend the previous COP (Conference of the Parties) meetings held in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Khalis, director general of Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), said his team was invited to attend the talks by Azerbaijan's ecology minister and COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev.

The Afghan delegation is in Baku as "guests" of the hosts, not as a party directly involved in the negotiations.

"I really appreciate" Babayev's invitation and the Azerbaijani government's facilitation of visas, said Khalis, son of prominent jihadist figure Mawlawi Yunus Khalis.

His delegation, he told AFP through an interpreter, aims to "deliver the message ... to the world community that climate change is a global issue and it does not know transboundary issues."

With Afghanistan among the countries most vulnerable to global warming, the Taliban have argued that their political isolation should not bar them from international climate talks.

Khalis said COP29 participants should take into consideration vulnerable countries such as Afghanistan, which are most affected from the effects of climate change, "in their decisions".

The Taliban treatment of women, however, could be controversial at climate conferences where gender rights always play a part of the discussions.

"Afghan people, especially the most vulnerable, urgently need support from climate finance to recover and adapt," climate activist Harjeet Singh told AFP.

"However, as the Taliban government seeks to engage in the international process, it is essential that they respect and promote universal fundamental rights -- particularly women's rights within the country," he said.

Asked about the gender issue, Khalis told AFP that the implementation of climate change projects "boost" women as well.

Azerbaijan's COP29 presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the invitation.

Azerbaijan reopened its embassy in Kabul in February this year, though it has not officially recognised the Taliban government.

- Eyes on Brazil -

Developed countries have committed to providing $100 billion per year in climate finance through 2025 to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.

Developing nations are calling for trillions of dollars, but Babayev said Monday a more "realistic goal" was somewhere in the hundreds of billions.

"Our people in Afghanistan also should access" such funds "as a right on climate change", Khalis said, describing it has his country's "main expectation" at COP29.

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.

Drought, floods, land degradation and declining agricultural productivity are key threats, the UN development agency's representative in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, said in 2023.

Flash floods in May killed hundreds and swamped swaths of agricultural land in Afghanistan, where 80 percent of people depend on farming to survive.

Khalis said Afghanistan was seeking to attend next year's climate summit in Brazil as an official party to the talks.

"We are very interested to be as a party in the COP30 in Brazil," he said.

"This is the right of the people, the climate justice for the people that's actually most vulnerable communities to the impact of climate change."

Y.Keller--NZN