As long as the US economic blockade is in place, Iran will not be able to comply with international agreements aimed at tackling climate change, which will be to the detriment of regional states, the former managing director of the Iranian Fuel Conservation Company said.
“Thermal power plants are producing massive amounts of CO2 and there is no way to curtail it because US sanctions do not let us have access to advanced technology that is necessary to improve the quality of the fuel burnt to generate power,” Nosratollah Seifi was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
“US economic sanctions are associated with significant environmental impacts that have major short- and long-term health implications,” he added, noting that there will be no effective remedy for such problems unless sanctions are lifted.
Referring to renewable energies as a case in point, he noted that Iran is willing to harness solar and wind energies, but sanctions have impeded the progress and related projects cannot get off the ground.
Iran has been among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters in the last decade, along with China, India and Russia, yet it is one of the few countries not to ratify international treaties to fight global warming.
The country emitted close to 940 tons of carbon dioxide in 2018 and this has experienced an uptrend over the last three years, he added.
Emissions have soared in recent years, as overseas investments in renewable energy have totally collapsed.
“If sanctions were removed, we would have access to cutting-edge technology to develop more efficient power stations and invest in renewables, cutting greenhouse emissions substantially,” Seifi said.
According to the official, sanctions are certainly one of the root causes of Iran’s major environmental problems, as they have restricted local companies’ access to service and know-how, blocking international environmental aid and preventing the investment of multinational firms.
Iran is currently experiencing major environmental problems, some of which are increasing water shortage, air and waste pollution, soil erosion, deforestation and desertification.
Furthermore, sand and dust storms, land subsidence and sinkholes, wildfires and biodiversity losses are some of the evident signs of Iran’s environmental degradation in the last 20 years, during which international and US economic siege have caused severe and irreparable harm to Iran’s environment.
Transboundary Problems
Experts, including Kaveh Madani, Department of Environment's former deputy for social, international, technology and training affairs, believe that ecological problems are transboundary and their impacts cross political and geographical borders.
“Iran’s environmental problems have implications for its neighbors, the Middle East region, and the whole planet,” he added.
Given their significance, problems related to water stress have already affected Iran’s international relations with neighbors such as Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan, and can threaten regional stability in the long run, even after the removal of economic sanctions.
Environmental problems are also transgenerational and take a long time to address. The environmental problems of Iran, intensified by sanctions, cannot be fixed immediately after the sanctions are lifted. The lasting impacts of the problems will affect the future generations of Iran and the rest of the region.
Paris Agreement
According to Ali Salajegheh, the head of DOE, Iran will ratify the landmark Paris agreement on climate change only if sanctions against it are lifted.
Salajegheh noted that sanctions are impeding Iran’s development of renewable energy.
“Iran has been impacted by climate change like every other place in the world. This has reduced our annual rainfall and the inflow of water into our rivers has reduced by 40%, which have affected our agriculture and affected our industrial and drinking water," he said.
"If the sanctions are removed, then we have a commitment toward the international community, as they can transfer modern technology and finance to us, especially in the area of renewable energy, so we can modernize our deteriorating infrastructure."
The 2015 Paris Agreement was signed by most countries and has been described as the most complex global treaty since the Marrakesh (trade) Agreement signed in 1994.
Under the agreement, all governments that have ratified the accord, which includes China, India and the European Union, now carry an obligation to hold global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
That is what scientists regard as the limit of safety, beyond which climate change is likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.
