KABUL — When Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers attended the country’s first “international climate change conference” in Jalalabad earlier this year, few foreign guests were present.
Afghanistan remains largely isolated due to the Taliban’s restrictions on female education, depriving the country of foreign funding for critical climate adaptation measures.
Currently, the Afghan government is addressing the impacts of climate change independently, attributing floods and insufficient aid to foreign influence. Some former Taliban commanders liken global carbon emissions to a new invisible enemy.
“Just like they invaded our country, they’ve invaded our climate,” said Lutfullah Khairkhaw, the Taliban’s deputy higher education minister, at the Jalalabad conference. “We must defend our climate, our water, and our soil.”
Afghanistan is considered one of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change. Recent flash floods, which caused hundreds of deaths, have been attributed to ominous climate changes, according to researchers.
Kanni Wignaraja, the UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, noted that prolonged drought in Afghanistan has hardened soils, making flash floods particularly violent. “The damage is huge,” she said.
Before the Taliban takeover, international donors estimated Afghanistan needed over $20 billion from 2020 to 2030 for climate response. The U.N. continues to fund some projects, but Wignaraja confirmed that “global money for climate has dried up.”
The Taliban, rooted in Pashtun culture and an extreme interpretation of Islam, acknowledges climate change and urges environmental protection. Imams across Afghanistan emphasize this during Friday prayers.
Kabul-based imam Farisullah Azhari stated that carbon footprints will be significant on judgment day. “God will ask: How did you make your money? And how much suffering did you cause in the process?”
Modern science and age-old beliefs
Historically, the Taliban’s environmental activism was not linked to modern science. The Quran encourages tree planting, and the Taliban punished illegal loggers in the late 1990s.
At the Taliban-run Afghanistan Science Academy, scholars are debating reconciling modern science with centuries-old religious beliefs.
“Climate change is real,” said Abdul Hadi Safi, professor of Islamic Studies. “But if God doesn’t want something to happen, it won’t happen.”
Safi cited the inaccuracy of his smartphone’s weather app to illustrate his belief that God controls the weather.
Some scholars fear that Afghanistan’s droughts and floods are divine punishment or signs of the apocalypse. Others believe it is a foreign plot to destabilize the Taliban regime.
Despite differing views, members agree that foreign powers are responsible for climate change, and it is a religious duty to combat it.
Humvees and night-vision goggles
In Chesht-e-Sharif, western Afghanistan, the Taliban use American night-vision goggles and Humvees to battle climate change.
Local police chief Abdul Hay Motmayan used a Humvee to rescue villagers from a sudden flood last month. “The Humvee is very strong, and it can’t be washed away,” he said.
However, many displaced villagers lost their fields, livestock, and possessions in the flood.
When journalists arrived in town, Motmayan initially mistook them for aid workers. When government aid finally arrived days later, skirmishes broke out between locals and Taliban soldiers.
“I’m fed up with life,” shouted one villager. Motmayan expressed sadness but said they did all they could.
Senior disaster officials argued that simple flood barriers could have saved the village. “People need to understand climate change to protect themselves,” said Wakil Ahmad Nayabi, a disaster directorate expert.
Motmayan, the police chief, admitted he had never heard of climate change.
A lesson in climate change
With foreign funding for major projects suspended, officials want villagers to see themselves as the first line of defense.
“God won’t help those who don’t take action themselves,” said Mohammad Edris Hanif, a regional agriculture director, during a workshop in Wardak.
Farmers were instructed to keep mountain grass intact to absorb rain and not to move rocks forming natural flood barriers.
During a break, an official apologized for the farmers’ inability to understand climate change. However, villager Abdul Ahad Hemat stated he could see the effects of changing seasonal patterns on his fields.
