Conference on climate change in Nangarhar next week

KABUL (Pajhwok): To deal with the challenge of climate change, Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) and National Environment Protection Authority (NEPA) officials plan to organise an international conference next week in eastern Nangarhar province.

Title International Gatherings on Climate Change, the conference will be held at the University of Nangarhar, organisers say.

MoHE and NEPA officials told a joint press conference the three-day event would take place next week. National and international experts abroad will participate online and physically in the conference.

Deputy Higher Education Minister for Scientific Affairs Lutfullah Khairkhwa said 140 scientific and research papers would be presented and research results taken into consideration in policies of relevant institutions in combating climate change.

Pointing to Afghanistan’s participation in such international gatherings, Khairkhwa called climate change a humanitarian issue that must not be tied to politics.

He asked the international community to help Afghanistan implement projects related to climate change.

At the same time, NEPA’s deputy head for financial affairs Abdul Salam Haqqani described the planned conference as an important step.

He said through the conference research outcomes and scientific papers on the effects of climate change on Afghanistan would be shared with the world at large.

Haqqani noted past wars had caused heavy losses to Afghanistan. Right now 21 million population of the country are faced with shortages of clean drinking water.

According to NEPA authorities, Afghanistan needed $20 billion to counter the impact of and problems resulting from climate change.

Earlier, the UN had said Afghanistan was one of the least prepared countries to address the problems caused by climate change.

Based on recent research, Afghanistan is the sixth worst-affected country in the world by climate change. The rural areas of Afghanistan had been facing numerous environmental problems due to drought, floods and landslides in recent years.

aw/mud