Climate-financing for Afghanistan: UN moves to unlock stuck funds, say U.N. officials

U.N. agencies aim to secure climate financing for climate-vulnerable Afghanistan, facing political hurdles post-Taliban takeover, to boost resilience.

“United Nations (U.N.) agencies are trying to unlock key climate financing for Afghanistan, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change which has not received approval for any such fresh funds since the 2021 Taliban takeover,” two U.N. officials told Reuters.

Plagued by drought and deadly floods, Afghanistan has been unable to access U.N. climate funds owing to political and procedural issues since the former insurgents came to power.

But with the population growing more desperate as climate woes stack up, U.N. agencies are hoping to unseal project financing for the fragile country to boost its resilience. If successful, this would be the first time new international climate finance would flow into the arid, mountainous nation in three years.

"There are no climate sceptics in Afghanistan," said Dick Trenchard, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) country director for Afghanistan. "You see the impact of climate change and its environmental effects everywhere you go."

Two U.N. agencies are currently drawing together proposals they hope to submit next year to shore up nearly $19 million in financing from the U.N's Global Environment Facility (GEF), part of the financial mechanism of the 2015 U.N. Paris Agreement on climate change.

Confronting climate change — and the Taliban — in Afghanistan

These include the FAO, which hopes to get support for a project costing $10 million that would improve rangeland, forest and watershed management across up to four provinces in Afghanistan, while avoiding giving money directly to Taliban authorities.