An Afghan delegation will attend the upcoming UN climate change summit COP29 in Azerbaijan scheduled to take place from Monday, November 11.

According to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) foreign ministry spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said “delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku".

It was not immediately clear in what capacity the delegation would participate at COP29, but sources indicated it would have observer status.

Afghanistan is ranked as the country sixth most vulnerable to climate change and IEA authorities have pushed to participate in COP summits, saying their political isolation shouldn't bar them from international climate talks.

Having tried and failed to attend UN climate change summits in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, this year an invitation from COP29 hosts Azerbaijan came through.

Officials from the country's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) have repeatedly said climate change should not be politicized and called for environment-related projects put on hold due to the IEA’s takeover to be reinstated.

"Climate change is a humanitarian subject," deputy NEPA head Zainulabedin Abid said in a recent interview with AFP.

"We have called on the international community not to relate climate change matters with politics."

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.

Drought, floods, land degradation and declining agricultural productivity are key threats, the UN development agency's representative in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, said in 2023.

Flash floods in May killed hundreds and swamped swaths of agricultural land in Afghanistan, where 80 percent of people depend on farming to survive.

The amount of finance provided to developing countries to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change is far short of the $359 billion a year needed even after the biggest annual increase yet, a U.N. report on Thursday showed.

Funding from the developed world hit $28 billion in 2022 after a $6 billion rise, the most in any one year since the U.N. Paris deal in 2015 to try and limit the impacts of global warming, the annual U.N. Environment Programme report said, according to Reuters.

Countries are preparing to meet in Azerbaijan at COP29 from Nov. 11-22 for the next round of climate talks in a year marked by extreme weather aggravated by climate change, including floods in Bangladesh and drought in Brazil.

How much money richer countries agree to send to developing countries to help them cope is expected to be central to the talks in Baku.

"Climate change is already devastating communities across the world, particularly the most poor and vulnerable. Raging storms are flattening homes, wildfires are wiping out forests, and land degradation and drought are degrading landscapes," UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a statement.

"Without action, this is a preview of what our future holds and why there simply is no excuse for the world not to get serious about adaptation, now."

Adaptation finance covers activities including building flood defences against rising sea levels, planting trees in urban areas to protect against extreme heat and ensuring infrastructure can withstand hurricanes.

In addition to the finance, countries need guidance on how to use it.

While 171 countries have a policy, strategy or plan in place, the quality varies, and a small number of fragile or conflict-affected states have none, the report said.

A separate U.N. report last month said the world was on track to exceed its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, opens new tab (2.7 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average by 2050, and instead head for warming of 2.6-3.1C.

Roza Otunbayeva, head of UNAMA, said in a meeting with officials of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency that UNAMA will try to make useful decisions about Afghanistan at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference. 

The conference is scheduled to start on Monday and will be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

She also said the conference will provide the basis for the participation of an Afghan delegation at similar international conferences in the future.

 According to Otunbayeva, UNAMA is trying to attract international aid for Afghanistan.

Mutiul Haq Khals, the Director General of the National Environmental Protection Agency, said at the meeting that people are suffering from the negative effects of climate change and the issue should be looked at from a human point of view and not politicized. 

He said if joint steps are taken in this field, the grounds for practical measures will be provided.

Climate change is having a significant impact on Afghanistan, resulting in a range of serious challenges.

One of the most immediate and pressing consequences of the climate crisis in Afghanistan is its impact on food security across the country. 

With the country's economy reliant on agricultural production, particularly rain-fed agriculture, changes in precipitation patterns and extreme weather events have an extremely detrimental effect to the health of soil, crops and livestock.

Climate change has made erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, unseasonal frosts and flash floods increasingly common in Afghanistan and Central Asia, wreaking havoc on food production. 

These deficits mean rural producers are unable to feed their families from their land - deficits that are also driving up market prices.

Humanitarian concerns have been raised repeatedly over Afghanistan being left out of United Nations climate negotiations and meetings. 

The country has been left out of such meetings since the Islamic Emirate regained power in 2021.