Taliban officials from Afghanistan will attend the UN climate conference that starts next week in Baku in Azerbaijan, the country's Foreign Ministry told news agencies AFP and Reuters on Sunday. 

It will be the first time Afghanistan attends the annual global climate summit since the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021 amid the rapid US withdrawal from the country, two decades after ousting the previous Taliban regime. 

The Taliban government is not internationally recognized and the UN has not allowed the Taliban to take up Afghanistan's seat at the General Assembly.

COP29 organizers had also deferred a decision on considering Afghan participation since 2021, meaning the country was not able to attend other recent summits despite trying to. 

Afghan NGOs had also complained that they struggled to attend such sessions since the Taliban's return. 

Environmental agency head says climate change a 'humanitarian' subject, not a political one

"A delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku" for the summit, Afghan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told AFP. 

Both AFP and Reuters reported, citing off-the-record sources, that the Taliban delegation would only have observer status rather than being a full participant. 

Reuters cited a diplomatic source as saying this meant the delegation, from the national environment agency, would be able to "potentially participate in periphery discussions and potentially hold bilateral meetings."

It was not possible to give the delegates standard credentials as full participants, the source said, given the Taliban not being recognized as Afghanistan's rightful government.

The Taliban are seeking more international recognition in general, and have made some inroads — such as attending UN-organized meetings in Doha, and Taliban ministers attending forums in China and Central Asia over the past two years.

But their fundamentalist governance, particularly their treatment of women and girls, and the violent nature of their return to power have still left the Taliban more or less isolated on the world stage. 

On the topic of climate change, however, officials from the country's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) argue that the political barriers to entry should be even lower given the nature of the issue. 

"Climate change is a humanitarian subject," deputy NEPA head Zainulabedin Abid told AFP last month. "We have called on the international community not to relate climate change with politics." 

At-risk country, where droughts and flash floods are already commonplace

Despite a comparatively small and sparse population, Afghanistan is considered one of the countries most affected by climate change worldwide. 

Flash floods earlier this year killed hundreds, and the highly agriculture-dependent country has been suffering one of its worst droughts in decades in recent years. 

Many Afghans live as subsistence farmers and face deepening food insecurity amid the fluctuating seasonal rains and the often arid landscape.

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP29, is scheduled to run from Monday, November 11, through November 22, the following Friday.

msh/wmr (AFP, Reuters)