The great challenge of our time, global warming affects the countries of the planet unequally. For Iraq, for example, a new year of struggle is being prepared in the face of the catastrophic consequences of the drought.
The year 2022 was already ocher in Iraq with sand storms which have multiplied and, with them, respiratory diseases causing the death of some victims. During certain periods, phenomena have covered entire cities with a cloud of fine dust which penetrates into the lungs.
In 2023, the heat will soon be back in this country plagued by desertification. And with it, the hard report of agricultural harvests with negative profit. Unlike the year 2022, however, Iraqis begin 2023 with a legitimate government. The Parliament elected in 2021 has put a year to agree on the issue.
Among the challenges of the new team is the urgency of putting in place an emergency climate policy. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, nothing has been done to help farmers adapt their methods to new realities. Yet it is as much a question of public health as it is of security stability.
Faced with the record temperatures recorded in recent years, only the wealthiest are able to provide themselves with electricity, and therefore with air conditioning and running water, and can thus withstand the situation. According to the International Migration Office, 11,000 Iraqi families are currently displaced due to global warming.
► Also to listen: Iraq: agricultural land threatened by a wave of drought