A Localized HDP Nexus Response to Afghanistan's Environmental Crisis Under the Taliban

Climate change has catalyzed human suffering in recent times, extending to both the Global North and South. Heat waves in Europe as well as floods and droughts in Africa and Asia have left thousands of casualties. This state of affairs is expected to worsen as the world approaches its greenhouse gases budget cap. Climate change has served as a conflict multiplier, as people fight over resources and land. This is especially the case in underdeveloped countries such as Afghanistan, where most of the population resides in rural areas and regularly faces water shortages. The geographical nature of Afghanistan coupled with its population's dependency on agriculture, renders the nation particularly vulnerable to the implications of climate change. A landlocked mountainous country, Afghanistan has had to deal with droughts, storms, floods, landslides, avalanches, and earthquakes as well as record increases in temperature (Omerkhil et al., 2019).The rise to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 has led to uncertainty and derailed 20 years of humanitarian and development activity in a country historically dependent on foreign aid.1 Billions of aid dollars that were used to finance security and to support a wide range of developmental projects, including funding a thriving civil society, have suddenly dried up (Barakat, 2022). Sanctions have been imposed and the country has been isolated from the international financial system, which crippled local banking, deteriorated the nation's already frail humanitarian condition, and increased its vulnerability to hydrological, meteorological, and climatological disasters. An earthquake on June 21, 2022 killed over 1,000 people, while flash floods on August 13, 14, and 21, 2022 resulted in more than a hundred people dead and thousands displaced (ReliefWeb, 2022a; ReliefWeb, 2022b). This selection of some of the natural catastrophes that the country faces each year demonstrates its vulnerability to climate change.Thus far, in its response to the Taliban takeover, the international community has been too centered on the need for political inclusivity in government while failing to recognize the environmental factors that are currently the main cause of food deprivation and migration in Afghanistan. Amid the sanctions imposed, foreign assistance has been restricted to humanitarian aid that serves short-term relief and compounds the country's ever-reliance on foreign aid. By its nature, humanitarian assistance undermines institutions, engenders dependency on imported food, transports plastic and packaging into the country, and does little to encourage people to work and live sustainably.The Taliban's lack of international recognition, which has frozen Afghanistan's presence in all global climate forums, alongside the country's humanitarian situation and poor national climate resilience strategies all point to the necessity of a localized, integrated approach of the climate humanitarian-development-peacebuilding (HDP) nexus. This briefing argues the merits of implementing such an approach. The case is advanced by first defining Afghanistan's future environmental framework under the Taliban, based on a series of meetings with Taliban senior officials convened by Sultan Barakat, between May and August 2022, in his role as an unofficial facilitator of dialogue between the Taliban and the International Community, before exploring some of the challenges facing a localized climate HDP approach in the Afghan Context. It is important to note that the consensus on climate action in Taliban rhetoric suggests that the issue might be a useful entry point for dialogue on other issues, especially as it does not infringe on religious or cultural sensibilities.The Current Socio-Economic Status of AfghanistanAfghanistan is currently living a draconian multifaceted crisis, with compounding economic, political, health, and humanitarian elements. The country has failed to establish a fluid political transition as the Taliban lacks the experience required to manage such a daunting task, while the sanctions imposed, and the freezing of funds and reserves have crippled the economy.The Covid pandemic had a toll on the country's health system, which required substantial assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO). However, due to the sanctions imposed following the Taliban's takeover, that lifeline has been cut and the health system is now on the verge of collapse. Moreover, the nation struggled to contain an outbreak of measles that chiefly infected children under five (UNDP, 2021).Afghanistan has not been immune to the implications of the war in Ukraine. The war as well as the inflationary environment the world is witnessing have stifled energy and food security in the country. To make matters worse, with 80% of the population residing in rural areas dependent on agriculture, Afghanistan was recently hit by a particularly dry period, which meant that local agriculture could not compensate for food shortages. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) expected that 97% of Afghans would be living below the World Bank's poverty line of US$ 1.90 by mid-July. Malnutrition and food deprivation are widespread, impacting around 9.6 million children whose daily nutritional needs are not being satisfied (UNDP, 2021).