BAGHDAD — Iraq, a top oil exporter battered by climate
change impacts, must diversify its economy and pursue a "greener growth
model", the World Bank said Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
In a new report presented to authorities in
Baghdad, the
Washington-based institution said $233 billion must be invested by 2040 to
allow Iraq to embark "on a green growth path".
The mostly desert country, after decades of war and turmoil,
is also suffering worsening climate change shocks from drought and water
scarcity to rising temperatures.
Iraq's infrastructure is crumbling while its economy remains
heavily dependent on oil, which accounts for 90 percent of government revenue.
"Iraq faces the challenge of moving away from total oil
dependence towards a more diversified, private sector-led economy that creates
jobs and builds human capital while building resilience to climate
change", said Ferid Belhaj,
World Bank MENA vice president.
Citing water shortages, desertification and air pollution,
Belhaj told AFP that "Iraq has enough financial resources to manage these
challenges".
"The question is how to ensure that these financial
resources are made available for new policies to tackle environmental
challenges, and how to do it in an efficient way."
Among the proposed reforms, the World Bank recommended that
Iraq upgrade dams and irrigation systems and "decarbonize industry,
agriculture and the waste sectors".
The report also called on Iraq, plagued by chronic power
shortages, to eliminate the wasteful practice of gas flaring, where natural gas
in wells is burned off before oil is extracted.
The UN ranks Iraq as one of the world's five countries most
exposed to impacts of climate change, with water shortages, desertification and
rising temperatures predicted to devastate its agricultural sector in
particular.
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