Water & Environmental Issues

Decades of war, poverty, and fossil fuel extraction have devastated the country’s environment and its people. Top: Kamila Rashid says an oil refinery now sits on what used to be her family’s land. All photos by LYNZY BILLING for UNDARK IT’S 6 P.M. and the pink-tinged skies turn black above Agolan, a village on the outskirts of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of norther

Third year of drought forces Iraq to cut crop area in half Adverse weather sent global wheat prices near multiyear high A dried up river bed in the al-Huwaiza Marshes south of Baghdad in September., Photographer: Asaad Niazi/AFP/Getty Images   A third straight year of drought is forcing Iraq to cut its crop area in half, another example of how extreme weather caused b

This article is more than 1 month old To meet climate targets and avoid economic collapse, countries such as Iraq need international support in the transition to clean energy Ali Allawi is deputy prime minister and finance minister of Iraq. Fatih Birol is executive director of the International Energy Agency   In the Middle East and north Africa, global warming

Iraq has been buffeted by ill-winds over the past 40 years. Wars, sanctions, terrorism and domestic conflict have threatened its stability and the well-being of its citizens. But by far the most serious long-term threat the country faces is from the potential economic impact and environmental devastation of climate change. According to the UN Environment Programme, Iraq is t