The story of Iraq’s environmental vulnerability is not just about the scarcity of water but the abundance of oil. As the main source of income and wealth for Iraq’s political elites, the oil industry has contributed to the de-prioritizing of climate issues, in general, and water infrastructure in particular.
March 2023 marked the 20-year anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The war, violence and reconstruction efforts that followed have had an impact on Iraq’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Following the collapse of the government, looting occurred at an unprecedented scale. The most well-publicized instance was the looting of the national museum of Iraq (founded one hundred years ago, in March of 1923, as a single room in a government building housing artifacts and curated by the British Orientalist Gertrude Bell).
Iraq's climate crisis is playing out in the drinking water, arable land and public health of those who live in Iraq. But it is also a regional and global crisis. Any effective response must consider the interconnected nature of climate issues with other social institutions, the role of civil and local communities and the need for effective geopolitical climate diplomacy. For the country to mitigate the impact of the structural weaknesses-climate change-instability nexus, Iraq must diversify its economy away from oil dependency, invest in decarbonization efforts and cleaner energy infrastructure and address the fiscal and political implications of this transition. Another important first step would be to center the interests and knowledge of local communities most impacted by climate change.