Opinion: Afghanistan’s climate and conflict crises have a dire global cost

Afghanistan is one of the sixth most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. The recent weeks have seen recurrent climate disasters across the country, decimating impoverished villages filled with fragile mud homes. Without inclusive governance and robust international intervention, the country risks becoming a permanent pariah state — which is why the global community cannot afford to ignore the climate crises and humanitarian emergencies that are unfolding.

The country is facing one of the most complex humanitarian crises of its recent history. It is a convergence of the past 45 years of imposed conflicts of geopolitics, endemic poverty, climate change, the global economic recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and chronic foreign aid dependency.

In 2023, an estimated 28.3 million of the 44.5 million Afghans were in acute need of humanitarian assistance, while 15.8 million were facing “crisis-level” food insecurity — with 1 in 3 Afghans not knowing where their next meal will come from.