Critics lament exclusion of Afghanistan from COP27

The call for funding grows for diplomatically isolated Afghanistan, which has faced natural disasters because of climate change. “I would stop everyone I met and ask them: ‘Have you heard about Afghanistan?’ I would then tell them about the situation in our country, the suffering of our people because of climate change,” said Achakzai, who is director of the Environmental Volunteer Network, an NGO based in the capital Kabul. “Everyone seems to agree with me when I said that Afghanistan is among the most vulnerable countries affected by climate change, but few were willing to take action,” Achakzai told Al Jazeera. “Climate change has no national boundaries and the issue should not have been politicalised,” Hafiz Aziz Rahman, the acting head of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency, said, criticising Afghanistan’s exclusion from the conference. “There is a need to increase the steadily declining climate change adaptation funds which can be transferred to Afghanistan through the existing cash transfer mechanisms,” Mayar suggested, referring to methods employed by international agencies due to the sanctions.