KABUL: An Afghan environment official said on Sunday that the country should be allowed to participate in future global climate talks after returning from COP29 in Baku, where Taliban officials attended for the first time.
The Afghan delegation was invited as “guests” of the Azerbaijani hosts, not as direct participants in the negotiations.
It was the first time since the Taliban came to power in August 2021 that an Afghan delegation had attended, having failed to be invited to the previous two COPs (Conference of the Parties) held in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
“Afghanistan should participate in such conferences in the future,” Mutiul Haq Khalis, director general of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency, said at a press conference on Sunday.
He described Afghanistan’s participation in the talks last month as a “huge success”. “We attended the conference this year so that we could raise the voice of the nation about the issues that we are facing, what are the needs of the people, we should share these things with the world.”
He said the Afghan delegation met with “19 different organizations and governments”, including delegations from Russia, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Bangladesh.
Despite minimal emissions, Afghanistan is among the countries most at risk of global warming, and the Taliban government has argued that its political isolation cannot prevent it from international climate talks.