Kurdistan prepares local adaptation plan for Paris Climate Agreement

Shafaq News / The Head of the Environment Protection and Improvement Authority in the Kurdistan Region Abdul Rahman Siddiq announced, on Wednesday, the preparation of a "Local Adaptation Plan," which is an extension of the Nationally Determined Contributions document submitted by the federal government to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Siddiq told Shafaq News Agency, "The Kurdistan Region, along with other Iraqi governorates, has joined the Paris Agreement on climate change. This requires us to prepare a document called the Nationally Determined Contributions, which was submitted to the Paris Agreement on October 15, 2021, and came into effect in December 2021."

He added, "The United Nations asked us to prepare the National Adaptation Plan, which the federal government submitted. The Kurdistan Region is required to prepare its Local Adaptation Plan. Today, we launched this plan in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), coinciding with the International Day for Biological Diversity."

Siddiq explained that "the plan includes several projects, and we are requesting international agencies to fund these projects through the Green Climate Fund and the Loss and Damage Fund."

It is noteworthy that the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 during the COP21 in Paris, is an international treaty aimed at combating climate change and promoting a sustainable low-carbon future. 

It came into force on November 4, 2016, to keep the global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while striving to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.