KABUL - The Government of Afghanistan today took a step towards mitigating climate change by starting work on its first ever country report documenting emissions and removals of greenhouse gases within the United Nations framework.

The Initial National Communication (INC) outlines steps taken by countries to deal with climate change, and is a requirement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), of which Afghanistan is a Member State.

“There are no passports for environmental crisis. It’s time that Afghanistan wakes up and acts,” Najibullah Yamin, Deputy Director General at the Afghan National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA), said on the sidelines of today’s meeting in Kabul.

“Environment crises do not make a sound like a suicide bombing, but air pollution in Kabul is no less a killer than a bomber.”

NEPA is leading the effort to create the INC, with cooperation from the Ministries and technical assistance from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Afghanistan.

Representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), Energy, Water, Interior, Urban Development, Women’s Affairs and Education were among today’s participants.

“This is a good sign that the Government is paying attention to this issue. This is the first time that this many Ministries have taken part,” said Abdul Wali Modaqiq, Officer-in-Charge of the UNEP office in Afghanistan.

The goal of today’s meeting was to set up five working groups that would gather and analyze information on vulnerability and adaptation, greenhouse gas collection, mitigation, technological transfer, research, and environmental education and awareness.

A sixth working group will compile the finished products into the country report. The longer term goal of the INC process is to develop a national strategy to address the impact of climate change in Afghanistan.
A first draft of the report is expected at the end of this year, according to Modaqiq.

NEPA took the first steps towards producing an INC in 2007, with the creation of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Environment Coordination (CEC) as mandated by Afghan Environment Law, but progress was delayed by a lack of resources.

The INC would allow Afghanistan to take part in the Global Environment Facility project, a financing mechanism for developing countries under the UNFCCC.

“There are needs at the international level, national and local. There is a lack of technology, knowledge and experts in this country who work on the environment,” Yamin said.

In 2003, UNEP released its first post-conflict environmental assessment of Afghanistan. It warned about an alarming degree of environmental degradation, exacerbated by decades of conflict and poverty.

“The Government has made the environment of secondary or third importance, but it until now it has not been a priority. There is no strategic agenda or specific implementing actors despite the fact that 3,000 people each year die due to air pollution in Kabul alone. And we, Afghans, need to take greater responsibility,” he said.

The start of the process to develop the report comes one week after the UN launched the International Year of Forests under the theme “Forests for People.”

By UNAMA