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ISLAMABAD —The Taliban in Afghanistan sent its representatives to Azerbaijan on Sunday to attend a major United Nations climate change conference, marking the first such participation since they seized power three years ago.
State-run Afghan media reported that Muti-ul-Haq Khalis, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency, is leading the Taliban's "technical" delegation, which is expected to have observer status instead of full participation.
The U.N. Climate Change Conference, commonly called COP29, is scheduled to start Monday in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, and will run until November 22.
The Taliban have been excluded from recent international climate change talks because no country has recognized them as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, nor have they been permitted to take the country's seat at the U.N. General Assembly.
Poverty-stricken Afghanistan is ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis. It has recently encountered severe weather-related disasters like flash floods and prolonged droughts.
Flash flooding earlier this year killed more than 350 Afghans, damaging close to 8,000 homes and displacing more than 5,000 families besides destroying crops and agricultural land. U.N. agencies report that the recent extreme weather in Afghanistan exhibits all the signs of the escalating climate crisis.
Taliban authorities have sought to participate in U.N. climate summits, arguing that their political isolation should not prevent them from joining international climate talks and discussing the challenges facing their country.
Host Azerbaijan invited the Afghan environment agency officials to COP29 as observers, enabling them to "potentially participate in periphery discussions and potentially hold bilateral meetings," the Reuters news agency quoted a diplomatic source familiar with the matter as saying.
The Taliban's restrictions on the freedoms of Afghan women have primarily deterred the world from formally engaging with their government. They have prohibited girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade and suspended female students from universities since regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, when the United States and NATO troops left the country.
The Islamist leaders have enacted laws requiring Afghan women to cover their bodies and faces in public. Additionally, these laws prohibit women from undertaking long road or air trips unless accompanied by a male guardian.
The Taliban say their governance is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia and reject international calls for reversing restrictions on women as an interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.