Reforesting Iraq: Iraqi Government Plan Set Out to Plant Millions of Trees

October 11, 2024

min

Mustafa Al Ghanimi

Rasool, 13, and his brother Waad, six, explore the cracked ground where there once was water in a village in the al-Ankour area of western Iraq [Alannah Travers/Al Jazeera]

Over the last four decades, Iraq has suffered a plethora of environmental consequences, made worse by the constant wars that have left the country with problems ranging from decaying infrastructure to contaminated water systems. In recent years, however, the government has embarked on a nationwide initiative to combat the effects of climate change by planting millions of trees across much of the country’s arid landscape. These initiatives, supported by both local and international organizations such as the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), aim to mitigate the country’s environmental challenges, such as desertification, extreme heat, and air pollution. However, while the planting of trees is a crucial first step, the challenges of maintaining and sustaining these trees require continuous efforts from the responsible bodies such as government officials and community-led organizations, especially in a country that is facing several developmental challenges.

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Baghdad’s goal to plant over 10 million trees as well as similar efforts in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan reflects a nationwide push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to restore Iraq’s diverse ecosystems. Such ecosystems have taken a huge hit, such as the loss of over 50% of forests in the Iraqi Kurdistan region (the Arab Weekly). These losses in forests and tree-covered areas are partly the result of the water crisis, instability that has led to an increase forest fires, and increased economic dependence on the cutting down of trees. In response, the planting of trees is meant to absorb carbon dioxide, making them a vital step in the country’s road to environmental sustainability.

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In addition to the effects on the environment, there has been a significant toll on human lives. According to a United Nations report, nearly 7 million Iraqis are facing a severe lack of safe, clean water (The World). The country’s two primary rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, have experienced historically low levels due to upstream damming and prolonged droughts, both made worse by climate change.

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The mass tree planting initiative is not just about greening Iraq’s arid landscape; it’s about creating sustainable ecosystems that can support both human and wildlife populations. Trees are known to absorb carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, thus playing a vital role in global efforts to combat climate change. In Iraq, the reforestation plan is expected to sequester significant amounts of carbon, improve air quality, and restore degraded land.

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However, planting trees is only half the battle. The success of Iraq’s reforestation efforts hinges on the country’s ability to ensure that these trees survive and thrive. Watering these newly planted trees is a critical aspect that is often overlooked in large-scale reforestation projects. In Iraq, where water resources are already under severe stress, this presents a significant challenge.

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One of the strategies being explored is the use of treated wastewater for irrigation. By recycling wastewater, Iraq could reduce the strain on its freshwater resources while providing the necessary hydration for its growing forests. Another approach involves the implementation of advanced irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation, which minimizes water waste and ensures that water reaches the tree roots directly. In contrast, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Water and Agriculture Committee in an interview on Iraq state TV referred to the condition of agriculture in Iraq as similar to that during the time of “Hammurabi”, noting its reliance on archaic methods of irrigation.

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In addition to water challenges, the quality and type of trees planted are crucial for long-term success. Not all trees are suited to Iraq's harsh environment, where extreme heat and dust storms are common. Medium-sized trees like the black wattle (Acacia decurrens), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) are more likely to tolerate these conditions. These species can survive in dry climates and provide valuable shade, which helps reduce the surface temperatures in urban areas. In contrast, palm and date trees, while the latter is iconic in Iraq, often require large amounts of water and offer limited shade, making them less ideal for extensive reforestation efforts in a country with a mostly arid climate like Iraq.

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Despite these efforts, experts warn that reforestation alone may not be enough to counter the severe impacts of climate change in Iraq. The country’s broader environmental policies must address issues such as water management, agricultural practices, and urban planning to create resilient and flourishing ecosystems. Without a comprehensive approach, the benefits of planting millions of trees could be undermined by continued environmental degradation at a rate higher than the planting of new trees can mitigate.

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Moreover, community involvement and education are essential to the success of these reforestation projects. Local communities need to be empowered with the knowledge and tools to care for the trees and understand the long-term benefits of reforestation. This includes promoting awareness about the importance of conserving water, protecting newly planted areas, and reducing activities that contribute to deforestation and land degradation.

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In conclusion, while Iraq’s commitment to planting millions of trees is a commendable step towards addressing the challenges posed by climate change, it is not a cure-all. The survival and growth of these trees depend on selective and careful planning, adequate water resources, and community engagement. As Iraq continues to battle the effects of climate change, it must adopt a holistic approach that integrates reforestation with broader environmental and sustainability initiatives to ensure a greener, more resilient future for all. Iraq’s future depends on comprehensive climate strategies that include adequate water management and policy reform. Given the country’s current political and economic challenges, these goals seem ambitious at best.

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To learn more about Iraq's broader environmental strategy, you can explore the country’s blueprint for a greener future as supported by efforts from the United Nations Development Program.

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Meet the San Diego County Leaders Advocating to Protect Rooftop Solar and Expand Equitable Access

Advocacy

December 2, 2021

min

Meet the San Diego County Leaders Advocating to Protect Rooftop Solar and Expand Equitable Access

As the year-long battle to save rooftop solar in California nears a final decision, local advocates are sending a loud and clear message: San Diegans want to protect rooftop solar and expand equitable access to solar and storage.

A year-long battle to save rooftop solar in California is nearing a final decision. Although going up against the monopoly utility companies and their allies has not been easy, local advocates have been successful in sending a loud and clear message: San Diegans want to protect rooftop solar and expand equitable access to solar and storage. A proposed net energy metering (NEM) decision is expected to be made in December with a final decision expected by February from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which will decide the future rooftop solar agreement in California, known as net energy metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0).

Along with our partners in San Diego, we helped grow a coalition of over 40 local environmental, climate justice and advocacy organizations, five cities, the state’s second largest community choice energy program, schools and local elected officials to weigh in on the net energy metering proceeding to advocate for the continued growth of rooftop solar. Over a year ago we reached out to San Diego-based solar advocates and helped establish and co-lead the Save California Solar coalition with the Solar Rights Alliance, which meets monthly and has many San Diego-based and statewide organizations involved.

The City of Solana Beach led the charge in September, becoming the first city in the region to adopt a net metering 3.0 resolution, which specifically called out the investor-owned utilities’ proposal and its potential to disrupt the market. The vote at Solana Beach’s Climate Action Commission and city council were unanimous after hearing many local organizations speak in support during public comments.

“I am completely in support of the resolution,” said Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Kristi Becker. “Everything we do on the city council, at the Climate Action Commission for the Clean Energy Alliance, we've all been trying to encourage renewable energy so we need to make sure that it remains affordable and we also have to make sure it is affordable for those in our communities of need.”

Following the Solana Beach resolution, the Chula Vista City Council and Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina sent letters to Governor Gavin Newsom, both advocating for the CPUC not to make any drastic changes to the current net energy metering policy, which has been very successful in finally making solar accessible to communities of concern.

In November, the City of San Diego, America’s second-best solar city, became the largest city in the state to weigh in on the proceeding. San Diego Councilmember Raul Campillo, who was one of the first elected officials in the state to issue a letter to Governor Newsom advocating for a solar-friendly net metering 3.0 agreement, called out the importance of this resolution during his remarks. “This {resolution} ensures that the City of San Diego has communicated its priorities to the state on this matter, and we cannot afford any changes to this {net metering} policy that slows down the process or limits accessibility to clean energy. This resolution speaks loudly and clearly that the City of San Diego wants to protect the environment, create good paying, high-skilled jobs, improve our energy resiliency and save ratepayers billions of dollars."

Shortly after San Diego’s resolution was approved, the City of Encinitas weighed in with a letter from the city council and Mayor Catherine Blakespear, which stated “the City of Encinitas was proud to be one of the first cities in the region to join a community choice energy program, San Diego Community Power (SDCP), and we have plans for our program to benefit the community in various ways, and net metering plays a role in our impact. The solar fees that are being proposed by the IOUs are fees that SDCP will not be able to avoid, meaning that rooftop solar for our community choice energy program customers may still be inaccessible despite SDCP’s solar-friendly NEM rate, which is bad for our community members, makes it harder and more expensive for SDCP to reach 100 percent clean energy and takes away from potential program opportunities to benefit the community.”

It is very clear that the organizations, elected officials and San Diego Community Power understand the impacts that a bad NEM 3.0 decision could have on the climate as well as local and statewide clean energy goals. In all of the local advocacy in meetings regarding net energy metering, SDG&E has been the only opposition, citing concerns over equity, which we believe are not only disingenuous, but unfounded. Very credible studies show that rooftop solar reduces rates for everyone because it reduces the cost of maintaining long distance power lines as well as wildfire costs associated with those power lines. A recent study by Vibrant Clean Energy shows rooftop solar can save California ratepayers $120 billion! Rooftop solar threatens the monopoly utilities’ profits, and that is their true motivation for advocating for reform. California’s investor-owned utility companies have not only tried making solar less accessible to all, they have also blocked efforts for community choice energy, community solar, on-bill solar financing and other tools to make solar more accessible.

The battle over the future of rooftop solar in California continues, but we hope that the CPUC commissioners will consider all of San Diego’s advocacy surrounding this issue and that the proposed decision released next month will reject elements of the IOUs’ proposal that would make it harder for communities of concern to go solar, namely high monthly solar fees, decreasing export compensation and instantaneous netting.

None of this work would be possible without the dedication and commitment from local advocates, the majority of which volunteer their time for this cause. Rooftop solar is a key climate solution, and with the devastating effects of the climate crisis already occurring throughout California, now is the time when we should be discussing how to incentivize more people, especially in communities of concern, to adopt solar and storage. A big thank you to the following organizations, schools, elected officials and cities:

San Diego Community Power
City of Encinitas
City of Chula Vista
City of San Diego
City of Solana Beach
Mayor Serge Dedina
Councilmember Raul Campillo
Carlsbad Unified School District
San Diego Democratic Socialists
San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition
I Am Green
Citizens Climate Lobby San Diego
San Diego Green New Deal Alliance
Unitehere! Local 30
Associated Students of San Diego State University
Center for Sustainable Energy
GRID Alternatives San Diego
Climate Action Campaign
San Diego Climate Hub
San Diego Coastkeeper
Environmental Centers of San Diego
North County Climate Change Alliance
Samuel Lawrence Foundation
Surfrider San Diego
Bike San Diego
Protect Our Communities Foundation
League of Women Voters San Diego
San Diego Green Building Council
SanDiego350
South Bay Sustainable Communities
Climate Reality Project San Diego
BQuest Foundation
Business for Good San Diego
San Diego Energy District Foundation
CleanEarth4Kids.org
Uptown Tavern
San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action

We appreciate all of our partners in this effort and would like to give a special shout out to Climate Action Campaign, SanDiego350 and San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition, along with the Solar Rights Alliance, which have attended countless meetings and presentations to move all of the aforementioned efforts forward.

More details about the NEM 3.0 proceeding can be found at www.HelpCleanEnergy.org.

Screenshot of the San Diego City Council's virtual meeting on the NEM 3.0 proceeding

San Diego Becomes the Largest City to Advocate for Continued Access to Rooftop Solar

Advocacy

November 15, 2021

min

San Diego Becomes the Largest City to Advocate for Continued Access to Rooftop Solar

On November 15, the City of San Diego became the largest city in the state to weigh in on the net energy metering proceeding, which is currently underway at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). A proposed net energy metering (NEM) decision is expected to be made by next month on the future rooftop solar agreement in California, known as net energy metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0).

The net metering resolution, which urges the CPUC to create a structure that will keep rooftop solar growing sustainably while expanding solar access to low-and-moderate income communities, was approved unanimously by the San Diego City Council today after receiving unanimous support during the San Diego Environment Committee last month. Local organizations SanDiego350, Climate Action Campaign, Protect Our Communities Foundation, CED Greentech and the San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action joined the Hammond Climate Solutions team in making verbal comments in support of the resolution today, emphasizing the importance of this decision in the middle of a climate emergency. Last month over 60 people made comments in favor of the resolution.

“Rooftop solar is a lynchpin in the city's legally-binding Climate Action Plan,” said Matthew Vasilakis, Co-Director of Policy with Climate Action Campaign. “We need to incentivize rooftop solar and storage with a strong NEM program and paired investments in communities of concern. That's how we build a climate resilient 100 percent clean energy system.”

Councilmember Raul Campillo, who was one of the first elected officials in the state to issue a letter to Governor Newsom advocating for a solar-friendly net metering 3.0 agreement, called out the importance of this resolution during his remarks today.

“This {resolution} ensures that the City of San Diego has communicated its priorities to the state on this matter, and we cannot afford any changes to this {net metering} policy that slows down the process or limits accessibility to clean energy. This resolution speaks loudly and clearly that the City of San Diego wants to protect the environment, create good paying, high-skilled jobs, improve our energy resiliency and save ratepayers billions of dollars."

Beyond the obvious carbon emissions reduction, local grid reliability and cost savings that come from the increased adoption of rooftop solar and energy storage, the San Diego region has thousands of local jobs at stake with this decision. Jake Marshall, Operations Manager with CED Greentech San Diego, a distribution company out of Mira Mesa, called in to support the resolution. Marshall’s comment highlighted the potential massive job loss that could result if the industry is forced to slow down.

“I personally employ 75 people in Mira Mesa, we have run the numbers and with the {investor-owned utilities’ anti-solar} proposals, our numbers will go down to 22 people.”

The resolution states that the City of San Diego “supports a CPUC NEM 3.0 decision, which emphasizes the sustainable growth of customer sited solar electric and energy storage facilities in order to meet California’s clean energy targets, particularly residential customers in disadvantaged communities” while also advocating to “reject elements of any proposal which will stifle sustainable growth of customer sited renewable generating facilities including high monthly fixed charges and avoided cost models which insufficiently account for the societal value of customer sited renewable generation.”

The resolution includes strong equity provisions, and Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe highlighted the importance of making solar jobs more accessible to communities of concern.

Council President Jennifer Campbell ended the discussion by calling out the intentions of the investor-owned utility companies.

“It's clear the investor-owned utilities are working hard to hamper solar energy growth, which is very short-sighted of them, as they could utilize this extra energy obtained to provide energy for other people in geographic areas that do not have as much sunshine as we have. The cost shifting that {the investor-owned utilities} are proposing will hurt our climate action goals, will hurt our green job growth and the affordability of those who wish to push solar on their roofs. Unfortunately it seems that their immediate bottom line is more important to them than a cleaner, green San Diego in which all income levels can participate in our abundant sunshine. Let the {C}PUC know that San Diego stands on the side of rooftop solar, especially in communities of concern, and all the benefits of it, from good paying local jobs to healthier neighborhoods and increased clean energy production as solar energy brings.”

Once again, the only comment that was not emphatically in support of protecting rooftop solar was from one San Diego Gas & Electric employee who urged the council to meet with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an organization who is known to side with the utilities on this issue (learn more in this blog post, How an Environmental Group Aligned with Monopoly Utilities to Squash Rooftop Solar).

The City of San Diego weighed in just in time before the anticipated proposed decision by the CPUC in December, while other cities and organizations in San Diego county have already gone on the record in support of protecting access to rooftop solar and energy storage. In September, the City of Solana Beach became the first city in the state to issue a resolution standing up for a strong net energy metering with a unanimous vote. San Diego Community Power, the community choice energy program for the cities of San Diego, Imperial Beach, Encinitas, La Mesa and Chula Vista, also submitted a letter jointly with San Jose Clean Energy, which highlighted the fact that the net metering proposal by the investor-owned utilities would result in fees that community choice energy customers would not be able to avoid. Earlier last week, the City of Chula Vista voted unanimously to send a letter and approve a resolution calling for the CPUC to create a policy in which solar is able to continue to grow, and this week, Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina released a letter in support of a strong net metering 3.0 agreement.

As the proposed decision by the California Public Utilities Commission rapidly approaches and the final decision expected by February of next year, local activists are hoping this resolution will lead to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria weighing in as well to leverage his existing relationship with Governor Gavin Newsom.

For latest information and up-to-date calls to action, visit our net metering toolkit at www.HelpCleanEnergy.org

The City of San Diego’s Environment Committee Stands up for Rooftop Solar

Policy

October 21, 2021

min

The City of San Diego’s Environment Committee Stands up for Rooftop Solar

Today, the City of San Diego’s Environment Committee took a huge step in supporting rooftop solar by passing a resolution that advocates for a strong net energy metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0), the future solar agreement in California that is being determined by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). If the resolution is adopted by the full city council, the City of San Diego could be the second city in the state, following Solana Beach, to issue a resolution that advocates for the continued growth of solar, rejecting the investor-owned utilities’ proposal to extend payback periods for all solar projects, even in communities of concern, and impose the highest monthly solar fees in the nation.

The resolution passed unanimously in a 4-0 vote, urging the CPUC to reject any proposal that would stop rooftop solar from continuing to grow while urging the commissioners to consider alternatives that would expand solar access in communities of concern. Over 60 public comments, both written and verbal, were heard from local organizations that were overwhelming in support of a strong net metering, including comments from representatives of Climate Action Campaign, SanDiego350, GRID Alternatives San Diego, San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action, Protect Our Communities Foundation and others, all of which urged the committee to approve the resolution. The key role NEM 3.0 has in increasing the adoption of rooftop solar and moving away from consuming dirty, harmful fossil fuels was noted by speakers.

The draft resolution states that “San Diego City Council supports a CPUC NEM 3.0 decision, which emphasizes the sustainable growth of customer sited solar electric and energy storage facilities in order to meet California’s clean energy targets, particularly residential customers in disadvantaged communities” and urges the CPUC to reject any proposal that undervalues the societal benefits of renewable generation.

Today’s vote is a big win for over 30 local San Diego environmental and advocacy organizations, schools, cities, student organizations and equity groups who are working tirelessly to advocate for a strong NEM 3.0 to keep rooftop solar as a key climate solution and a tool to reach 100 percent clean energy targets. Rooftop solar also provides local green jobs, supports the regional economy, offers grid resilience and helps ratepayers avoid rate increases from additional utility infrastructure, which the IOUs get a guaranteed return on investment from. A recent Vibrant Clean Energy Study shows that California ratepayers can save $120 billion from rooftop solar while reducing the risk of wildfires, which ratepayers now must pay for.

This decision comes just after the San Diego Community Power Board of Directors issued a letter to the CPUC commissioners and Governor Gavin Newsom stating similar concerns over the high fixed monthly charges included in the IOUs’ proposal and the devastating impacts that could have on rooftop solar adoption. The resolution is now headed to the full city council for a vote, which is anticipated to take place before the CPUC’s proposed decision is released by mid-December of this year. The City of Chula Vista is expected to vote on a similar resolution in the coming weeks.

For latest information and up-to-date calls to action, visit our net metering 3.0 toolkit.