ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Speaking at the United Nations COP30 climate conference in Brazil on Thursday, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Damascus will begin preparing its plan to meet global climate targets and called for green investments in Syria as it emerges from years of conflict that devastated its environment and infrastructure.
Syria is facing major challenges but also opportunities, said Sharaa, “That is why we invite you to invest in Syria—in sectors such as renewable energy, sustainable green cities, and pioneering investment projects that are protected, supported and guaranteed by the state.”
“Rebuilding the Earth is a duty upon humanity, but it must not come at the expense of nature,” he added, according to state media SANA.
Syria has battled with environmental crises for decades. Water shortages and droughts caused by a drive for agricultural self-sufficiency pushed populations out of the countryside and into the cities where analysts say socio-economic tensions grew and contributed to the civil war. That conflict left behind huge amounts of rubble, damaged infrastructure, toxic war remnants, and unexploded ordnance.
“Conflict-driven deforestation, biodiversity loss, aggravated water scarcity and soil degradation, along with their impacts on agriculture, add to Syria's vulnerability to the climate crisis and weakening of the country’s capacity for climate adaptation,” the Dutch organization PAX said earlier this year.
The country is now in a drought “unlike any it has seen in over six decades,” Sharaa told delegates at COP30.
“We have come to you today realizing the magnitude of the challenge that Syria is experiencing, but we believe that no matter how great the challenges are, the will of the people is capable of overcoming them when they unite around a noble goal, an ambitious vision, and a clear plan, which is what we are offering for reconstruction in a way that redefines the relationship between man and urban development and establishes a sustainable environmental system,” he said.
Sharaa also said that his government will submit to the UN its commitments to address the climate crisis and contribute to efforts to limit global warming.