Iraq: Shrinking rivers, rising tensions and survival

Andrea, I wanted to start with you.

Until mid-2025, you served as climate, peace, and security advisor in Iraq, deployed through the climate security mechanism to the UN's assistance mission for Iraq.

The mandate of that special political mission, of course, ended in 2025.

Perhaps for someone who may be familiar with Iraq, mainly because of its past conflicts or the current headlines that we see, How would you explain to us how you view climate change unfolding in the country?

I think Iraq is one of the countries that is most exposed to climate change.

And this is not new for Iraq.

It's really been experiencing these stressors for a long time.

And perhaps that's something that most people might not consider when it comes to the impact of climate change.

It doesn't hit everywhere at exactly the same time and exactly the same way.

So Iraq has been grappling with this for a long time with more droughts, more heat, but on the other hand, also more extreme floods in the wintertime.

So lots of different challenges.

I think what's different now, and looking back 10 or 20 years as the climate change progresses, is that these serious events now are happening all the time.

Every summer, Iraq is hitting 50 degrees in some parts of the country.

And increasingly in more parts of the country, this is just becoming regular.

But every winter, there's flooding somewhere.

So now this has become an aspect of day-to-day life for people.

In August, the air in Baghdad crackles.

It is so dry and so hot.

It has the kind of electricity about it that touches everybody.

So in that sort of personal scale, everyone is being affected now.

On a national and economic scale, it's of course having a big impact as well.

25% of the population is employed through agriculture.

And agriculture is historically very important for Iraq and the region.

Iraq sits between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

It has been the breadbasket of the region.