Iraq Country Climate and Development Report

In Iraq, a multidimensional development and climate crisis is brewing. Iraq’s oil-dependent development model, weakening human and institutional capacity, and its deep social divides and inequalities are ingredients of a “perfect storm” centering on a development-climate-fragility nexus. A new World Bank Group diagnostic tool, the Country Climate and Development Report provides

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Why Iraq’s oil tanker ambitions have not

Shipping is one of many sectors where Iraq is still playing catch-up after decades of conflict. To this end, the Iraqi Oil Tankers Company (IOTC) recently added a new oil products tanker to its small fleet. Its vessels mostly operate within Iraqi waters, shuttling heavy fuel oil from two ports in the south of the country. The Sumer, a medium range ship with 31,000 deadwe

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Inadequate and inequitable: water scarcity and displacement in Iraq

Iraq’s climate is changing faster than people can adapt. With each passing summer, new records are logged: record high temperatures, record low water levels. Between May and October, the heat scorches all that is dead and sears everything that lives. During the day, the sun forces people inside; in the evening, the heat lingers in cities that feel like the inside of a hair d

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