Iraq .. billions of dollars in investments to counter climate changes economy

Iraq seeks to enhance its position in facing climate challenges by launching the National Climate Investment Plan (CIP), a comprehensive strategy aimed at fulfilling the country’s climate obligations for the period from 2025 to 2030.

This initiative, announced by the National Investment Authority, included 5 main tracks covering sectors:

• Renewable energy and energy
• Agriculture
• Industry
• Water
• Innovations and creativity

With an estimated budget ranging between 1.3 and 3.3 billion dollars, the plan aims to accelerate climate work and attract foreign and local investments, while providing a safe investment environment.

Plan details

Dr. Mona Sabah Al -Jabri, Advisor to Energy and Environment at the National Investment Authority, spoke about the details of this comprehensive investment plan to confront climate changes in Iraq.

Al -Jabri told Al -Jazeera Net that the plan “will contribute to facing environmental challenges through investment projects that address many environmental phenomena that affect and be affected by the clear changes that the world is witnessing and global trend in addressing these changes.”

She explained that the first stage of the plan was prepared for the period from 2025 to 2030, stressing that the goal is to “address the climate changes in the country and improve the environment through investment projects”, noting that the private sector is an important and vital partner in the field of the environment and environmental treatments.

Al -Jabri added that Iraq is one of the countries most affected by climate change, stressing that this effect is “clear through desertification, water scarcity, and high temperatures …”.

She stated that “the projects were distributed to each governorate in a manner commensurate with the natural resources, the needs of these governorates, and the type of procedures required of them in the face of these climate changes.”

Al -Jabri pointed out that the priority in the projects was “for innovation and creativity, energy, agriculture, water, and also transportation”, explaining that the authority is the authority concerned with implementing and following these projects “with the help of other ministries.”

She emphasized that the authority succeeded in granting the first investment license in Iraq to the project of waste treatment and electricity generation in the Nahrawan region in Baghdad, noting that the Prime Minister launched 4 other similar projects in Basra, Mosul, Najaf and Karbala.

Implementation challenges

For his part, economist Mustafa Hantoush played down the importance of the announced plan for climate investment in Iraq, stressing the need to direct efforts towards the sectors in which the country has real competitive advantages.

“Entering the field of environmental investment and clean energy is an important step and keeping pace with the global trend,” Hantoush told Al -Jazeera Net, especially since Iraq has become part of the climate agreement, but it stressed that Iraq is “an oil and gas country, and it has basic resources such as phosphate and sulfur.”

He pointed out that the focus on “ideal things” in light of the current situation may not be the perfect choice, calling for priority to investing in sectors that generate real profits and achieve concrete benefits for the country, such as oil, gas, petrochemicals and phosphates.

He pointed out that “the investment environment in Iraq is currently not attractive due to the complex laws and routine,” expressing its concern that the climatic plan remains “ink on paper”, especially in the absence of sufficient government financing and the weak performance of banks in financing such projects.

He expected that the role of foreign investors in bringing money to these projects would be “not easy”, explaining that the contribution of the plan in facing climate challenges may be limited, and its great positive impact may be limited to waste management projects.

Hantoush advised the necessity of “focusing on what is more important”, which is the investment body directing its interest towards the minerals and the initial resources that Iraq possesses, which would achieve real profits and attract effective investments.

He stressed that “the basis for desertification is afforestation,” which is not directly related to the investments announced in the framework of the plan.