BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — For the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Afghanistan on Monday sent a delegation to the United Nations climate talks in a bid to garner help in dealing with global warming.
Matuil Haq Khalis, who's head of the country’s environment protection agency, told The Associated Press that Afghanistan needs international support to deal with extreme weather like erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts and flash floods.
“All the countries must join hands and tackle the problem of climate change,” said Khalis, speaking through a translator at the talks, taking place this year in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Afghanistan has been hard hit by climate change, with a recent assessment by climate experts ranking it the sixth most climate vulnerable country in the world.
In March, northern Afghanistan experienced heavy rains resulting in flash floods, killing over 300 people. Climate scientists have found that extreme rainfall has gotten 25% heavier over the last 40 years in the country.
Khalis said Afghanistan has prepared national action plans to deal with climate change and will be updating its climate goals within the next few months. He said the country has great potential for wind and solar power but needs international to develop it.
He added that the Afghan delegation was grateful to the Azerbaijani government for inviting them. The delegation will have an observer status at the talks, as the Taliban do not have official recognition as the government of Afghanistan.
Joanna Depledge, a climate historian at the University of Cambridge in England, said Afghanistan should be able to attend.
“By virtue of being a global forum, there are a whole host of politically unsavoury states with all kinds of appalling records of one sort or another that attend. Where would we draw the line?” she said.
Responding to a question about the U.N. assessment that women are more vulnerable than men to climate impacts, Khalis said that “climate change impact doesn't have any boundaries, it can have its impact on women, children, men, plants or animals, so it requires collective work to tackle this issue.”
Khalis said he has requested bilateral talks with a range of countries, including the United States and would be happy to sit down with them if the request is accepted.
“We were not part of the last three conferences ... but we are happy that this time we are here and we will be able to deliver the message of Afghan people with the international community,” said Khalis.
Associated Press journalists Olivia Zhang, Peter Dejong, Aleksandar Furtula, Seth Borenstein and Joshua A. Bickel contributed to this report.
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Matiul Haq Khalis, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency from Afghanistan, speaks to members of the media at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Matiul Haq Khalis, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency from Afghanistan, speaks to members of the media at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries decided Thursday to put off increasing oil production as they face weaker than expected demand and competing production from non-allied countries — factors that could keep oil prices stagnant into next year.
The OPEC+ members decided at an online meeting to postpone by three months production increases that had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The plan had been to start gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day over the course of 2025. That process will now be pushed back until October 2026.
OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia as the dominant member of the OPEC producers’ cartel, and Russia as the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance, have imposed several sets of cuts to agreed output to support prices.
Oil prices have been slack due to weaker than expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries like Brazil and Argentina that aren’t in OPEC+.
Among the beneficiaries of the current state of the oil market are U.S. motorists, who have seen gasoline prices fall to their lowest in 2 1/2 years to near $3 a gallon.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Members of the OPEC + alliance of oil exporting countries will decide Thursday whether to put off plans to pump more crude amid sluggish demand and competing production from non-allied countries -- factors that could keep oil prices stagnant into next year.
Key beneficiaries of that would be U.S. motorists, who have seen gasoline prices fall to their lowest in 2 1/2 years to near $3 a gallon.
OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia as the dominant member of the OPEC producers' cartel, and Russia as the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance, is holding an online meeting over whether to put off production increases that are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.
Eight OPEC+ members planned to start increasing production from Jan. 1 by gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day in previous production cuts. Analysts now say the group could postpone production increases for another three months as it monitors demand.
Oil prices have been slack due to weaker than expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries like Brazil and Argentina that aren't in OPEC+. Oil analysts have been busy reducing their estimates for demand for next year, meaning that OPEC+ could remain in a bind well into 2025.
The Saudis need oil revenue to carry out Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s ambitious plans to diversify his country’s economy, including the development of Neom, a $500 billion futuristic city in the desert. For Russia, oil export revenues are a key pillar of state finances and funding for the war against Ukraine. Holding back production risks losing market share. Yet increasing production and sales could lower prices in a global economy that analysts say is already well supplied with oil.
U.S. oil has been stuck around $70 per barrel and traded at $68.92 on Thursday ahead of the meeting, down from $80 in August. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $72.66 per barrel, down from around $80 in July.
One result of those slack prices is that U.S. average pump prices for gasoline fell to $3.03 a gallon this week, the lowest since May, 2021 and well down from their record peak of $5.02 from June, 2022, according to motoring club AAA.
Thirty-one U.S. states now have average gas prices below $3 a gallon.
U.S. oil price levels of $70 or less “are great for consumers,” said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross. Crude oil makes up about half the price of a gallon of gasoline, making crude the key factor on top of distribution costs and taxes. Motorists in Europe see far smaller fluctuations because taxes make up a much bigger chunk of the cost.
OPEC has cut its forecast for 2025 demand growth to 1.54 million barrels per day, from 1.85 million barrels per day in July. That is at the high end of estimates compared to those from the International Energy Agency at 990,000 barrels per day, U.S. Energy Information Administration at 1.22 million and energy intelligence firm Rystad Energy at 1.1 million.
Analysts at Commerzbank foresee Brent prices averaging $75 per barrel in the first quarter of next year and $80 for the remaining three quarters.
In the United States, Donald Trump’s return to the White House will likely lead to more fossil fuel production. Not only has the President-elect campaigned on more drilling, but his Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent has put together an economic plan with the goal of increasing domestic oil production by the equivalent of 3 million barrels a day. Bessent has indicated that the additional oil production would reduce inflationary pressures for U.S. consumers. But the Trump team has not fully outlined why oil producers would ramp up supplies and lower prices to levels that could hurt their profits.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. It has since expanded to 12 member countries. In 2016, largely in response to dramatically falling oil prices due to U.S. shale oil output, OPEC signed an agreement with 10 other oil-producing countries to create OPEC+.
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Josh Boak contributed from Washington DC.
This version corrects that the number of countries in the OPEC+ alliance is 22, not 23.
FILE -The logo of the Organization of the Petroleoum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is seen outside of OPEC's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 3, 2022. A street sign that says „one way" is positioned below the logo. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner, File)
