The Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Afghan Taliban leaders would participate in a significant United Nations climate conference that begins next week for the first time since the former militants came to power in 2021.
One of the most prominent global gatherings that Taliban administration officials have visited since retaking Kabul following two decades of conflict with NATO-backed forces is the COP29 climate meeting in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Afghanistan’s government is not officially recognized by U.N. member states, and the Taliban has been denied the opportunity to represent Afghanistan in the General Assembly. This is mostly because of the Taliban’s limitations on women’s freedom of movement and education.
“National Environmental Protection Agency officials have arrived in Azerbaijan to attend the COP conference,” said Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry. After U.S.-led forces departed, the Taliban regained control of the agency.
Taliban ministers have visited conferences in China and Central Asia during the last two years, while Taliban leaders have participated in U.N.-sponsored discussions on Afghanistan in Doha.
However, since 2021, Afghanistan’s participation has been postponed by the COP Bureau of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, effectively excluding the nation from the negotiations.
In recent years, Afghan NGOs have also found it difficult to join the climate talks.
According to a diplomatic source with knowledge of the situation, host Azerbaijan allowed the Afghan environment agency executives to attend COP29 as observers, allowing them to “possibly participate in periphery conversations and potentially hold separate meetings.”
The officials are unable to get credentials to participate in the activities of full member nations as the Taliban are not officially acknowledged by the U.N. system as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
