Taliban say access to climate funds is the right of their people. But experts tell Stuti Mishra that giving them a seat at the table might be seen as legitimising their human rights abuse. The Taliban’s demand for access to global climate finance amid Afghanistan’s worsening droughts, floods, and food insecurity has sparked a global dilemma: will the hardline regime’s inclusion be seen as legitimising their brutal curbs on women and girls?.
![[An Afghan man collects his belongings from his damaged home after heavy flooding in Ghor province in western Afghanistan, Saturday, May 18, 2024.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/05/19/12/14a60f9c13e145d3aa7ace33cf7b25d7.jpg)
At the recent Cop29 in Baku, the Taliban delegation attending as observers for the first time since 2021, made their case for a full party status in future climate negotiations and access to international climate funds. “It is the right of our people, who are among the most vulnerable to climate change,” Mutiul Haq Nabi Kheel, the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) chief, tells The Independent. “We should not be invited as guests [in the next COP] but as full participants.”.
![[This photograph taken on 9 January 2024 shows an Afghan burqa-clad woman sewing clothes at a women's community center in Bagrami district on the outskirts of Kabul]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/02/12/GettyImages-1930877272.jpg)
The plea comes as Afghanistan endures relentless climate disasters. Earlier this year, flash floods in Ghor and Badakhshan swept through villages, killing dozens, displacing thousands, and washing away farmland. Prolonged droughts left over 12 million people, nearly a third of the population, facing severe food insecurity. The climate crisis has pushed the country, which contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global emissions, into a devastating cycle of drought, floods, and hunger.
![[Trainee midwives attend a training class in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 2 March 2023]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/03/09/13/SEI147213731.jpg)
The Taliban’s return to the climate stage has sparked a debate on whether the world can deliver aid to Afghanistan without recognising a regime that stands in direct opposition to human rights values. Any participation by the Taliban has led to a global pushback in the past.
![[A Taliban fighter stands guard as people receive food rations distributed by a Chinese humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, 30 April 2022]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/06/09/00/UN_Food_Crises_10226.jpg)
