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The Kurdistan Teachers’ Union (KTU) has called for the government of this Iraqi region to provide more funding and pay more attention to climate change and its impact on people. The KTU organised a series of informational seminars for its members during the national week dedicated to tackling climate change (25 April – 1 May).

The Kurdistan Teachers’ Union (KTU) has called for the government of this Iraqi region to provide more funding and pay more attention to climate change and its impact on people. The KTU organised a series of informational seminars for its members during the national week dedicated to tackling climate change (25 April – 1 May).

Over 100 teachers participated in these events held in the KTU branches of the Halabja, Duhok, Kirkuk, and Raparin districts.

KTU President Abdalwahed M. Haje explained that the main causes of climate change and its serious consequences on the future of humanity were highlighted in detail during the events.

The seminars were run by climate experts, university teachers, and instructors.

Governmental carelessness and inaction

“Participants criticised the Government of Kurdistan for being careless because, as the main authority controlling and running the region, it has not paid enough attention to this crucial subject. It has not even allocated a budget to this issue,” Haje outlined.

He said that vegetation covering Kurdistan is shrinking annually, leading to the region becoming a desert in the near future.

Haje also highlighted the disproportionate number of cars in Kurdistan – its population of approximately six million own two million cars. The government has not limited the importation of cars, which has allowed this situation to arise, he said. In addition, air pollution from factories is not strictly controlled, meaning that carbon dioxide emissions cannot be reduced. Significantly, the seminars emphasised that the subjects of environmental pollution and climate change have to be main subjects in the curricula. Students must be taught how to deal with these topics as well as possible.

Trade union proposals to mitigate the impact of climate change

During the seminars, participants identified the steps that need to be taken to prevent and reduce environmental pollution and climate change:

1. Insert climate change into the curricula so that it is taught at all education levels.
2. Open a special department within the College of Education training teachers to generate experts in this crucial field.
3. Pay more attention to the crisis facing vegetation cover. A planned ‘green chain’ of vegetation must be built around the cities.
4. Collect rain for use as about 40 billion cubic meters of freshwater are wasted every year and go directly to seas and rivers.
5. Reduce the use of private cars and build metros and roads for general transportation.
6. Use clean energy sources to produce electric power, instead of gasoline, currently a common way of providing electricity in Kurdistan. According to the union, gasoline releases 100 tonnes of CO2 gas in the atmosphere every single second, largely explaining why the environment of cities has been completely damaged and polluted.
7. Prevent illegal refineries: tens of which are still functioning without any consideration for safety conditions, the union says.

To achieve these crucial aims, KTU is determined to continue organising similar seminars to prepare a comprehensive plan to present to the Government of Kurdistan, Haje stressed.