Afghanistan's Taliban officials will attend a UN climate summit for the second time as observers

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Taliban officials have been invited to attend an upcoming U.N. climate summit as observers for the second time since returning to power in Afghanistan, a Kabul official said Tuesday. The summit starts next week in the Mediterranean city of Antalya in Turkey.

Two years ago, they attended a previous summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Rohullah Amin, head of climate change at Afghanistan's environment protection agency, confirmed to The Associated Press that Kabul plans to attend the summit, officially known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP31. A Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, also said the Afghan Taliban would attend COP31 as observers.

The United Nations has not allowed the Taliban to take up Afghanistan's seat at the U.N. General Assembly, and the Afghan Taliban government is not formally recognized by most U.N. member states, in part because of its severe restrictions on women's education and freedom of movement.

And since Baku, leadership groups of the U.N. climate conferences have deferred a decision on who represents Afghanistan, thereby largely freezing Kabul out of the talks. An observer can attend meetings and discussions at a climate summit but does not have a formal role in negotiations about policies or goals.

Afghanistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, facing a compounding crisis of drought, water scarcity, extreme heat and unpredictable flooding that is devastating lives and driving displacement, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.

Afghans largely depend on agriculture, and recurring droughts have severely weakened food production. Between April and December last year, more than 1.6 million people left their homes across the country due to climate impacts on their lives, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration.

Kabul has argued that it's important for the Afghan people to have representation and access to climate finance while its critics say the international community should not recognize the Taliban government.

Sayedmuhammad Sulimankhil, executive director of the Kabul-based nongovernmental Samsoor Watan organization, argued that the the multinational community should provide Afghanistan with climate financing regardless of who is in power.

"It's the Afghanistan community that's facing the climate consequences. It is not the government that is facing the consequences," he said.

Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan lawmaker and a women's rights activist, has publicly criticized the Afghan Taliban attendance in Baku. She left Afghanistan following the Taliban return to power.

"If any country invites the Taliban because they think they represent Afghanistan, it's a wrong perception," she said. "They don't keep their promises, they don't include women, they don't include children in their programs, so how can you actually represent a country where you do not even include or recognize the existence of 50% of the population?"

Since seizing power in 2021 as the U.S.-led forces were pulling out of Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed rules based on their strict interpretation of Islamic, or Shariah, law. Dissent is not tolerated, and protests against government decisions are illegal. They have also implemented severe restrictions on women, including a ban on girls' education beyond the 6th grade and limits on what women can wear and where they can go.

Associated Press reporter Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

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