Include Migration, Environment and Climate Change into the work of the Inter-Ministerial Technical Working Group on Migration

Environmental degradation, climate change and natural disasters are well-known as drivers of migration. Iraq is increasingly vulnerable to water scarcity and drought which is negatively affecting the agricultural sector and triggering displacement within Iraq. In reference to the Green Paper initiative being developed in 2022-23, there is space to include a migration perspective to the process.

Pursuant to Objective 2, the Government of Iraq pledges to include a representative from the Ministry of Environment in the Inter-Ministerial Technical Working Group on Migration. Increased coordination between these processes underscores the importance of integrating migration issues into climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies and frameworks.

LAST UPDATED: 21/02/24

We have collaborated with the IOM-DTM team; between June 2018 and September 2023, DTM identified a total of 130,788 individuals who have been displaced due to climate change and environmental degradation. Rates of depopulation (that is, the share of the original population that has been displaced) are considerably high in Qadissiya (44%), Thi-Qar (27%), and Missan (25%). The districts with the highest rates of depopulation as of October 2022 include Al-Rifa’i, Thi-Qar (61%); Qal’at Saleh, Missan (51%); Afaq, Qadissiya (44%); Hamza, Qadissiya (42%); and Amara, Missan (32%). 

Adding to the above IOM supported us in two training sessions on “climate displacement and security” and “Loss & Damage” as part of the Capacity Building Training for our Negotiation Team for COP28, co-organized by the Ministry of Environment.