Iraq is among the countries most exposed to climate change and least prepared for it. Enlil Center is an independent climate research center in Baghdad: we work on the evidence behind Iraq's national climate commitments, adaptation and climate finance.
Our climate work sits close to the policy process. Enlil Center's team has contributed to the mitigation chapter of Iraq's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), to the climate-mobility research behind the National Adaptation Plan, to the Climate Investment Plan and to the negotiators' handbook used by the Iraqi delegation at COP28. That experience shapes what we publish: analysis that a ministry, a donor or a journalist can act on, with the data behind every figure available in the Iraq Data Hub.
On this page you will find our climate reports, articles and datasets, covering temperature and rainfall trends, emissions, climate finance, loss and damage and the institutions responsible for Iraq's climate response.
The technical report behind Iraq's first Climate Investment Plan: US$82.85 billion of sector-by-sector investment need to 2030, a measured 2021 emissions baseline, and five funding streams. Othman Kareem of Enlil Center, working as a consultant to UNDP, was a contributing author.
Iraq's 333-page negotiating handbook for COP28, prepared with UNDP and the Ministry of Environment. Enlil Center authored its Mitigation chapters, the Energy Security brief and the COP28 Position Paper.
Iraq's 2025 drought was worse than Enlil's own 2025-2030 projections — and its 2026 recovery is fragile. An updated look at what happened to Tigris-Euphrates flows, reservoirs and Iraqi agriculture, and what a Turkey-Iraq water deal changes.
Iraq withdraws 120% of its internal renewable freshwater and has fallen below the 1,000 m³ per person scarcity line. Enlil Center sets out the evidence and four policy priorities.
Iraq generates 31,000 tons of solid waste a day — or nearly four times that, by its own ministry's count — and most of it ends up in open dumps or on fire. Mohammed A. Baban on the governance failures behind the open burning crisis.
Climate change could slash Iraq's GDP by up to 3.9% by 2030 due to water scarcity, extreme heat, and governance failures.
Enlil Center analyzes Iraq's carbon market potential — a 2025 UK MOU, the General Company for Carbon Economics, gas flaring reduction, and the governance gap standing between Iraq and credible Article 6 carbon credits.
Basra’s mangrove revival faces saltwater intrusion and oil pollution. Enlil Research examines the Khor Al-Zubair restoration and what it means for the coast.
COP29 set a $300bn-by-2035 climate finance goal. A year on, Iraq's climate pledge has grown to 22% by 2035 at COP30 — but oil still supplies 43% of GDP. Enlil traces what changed and what didn't.
Enlil Center led the field research and technical writing for the Climate Mobility Chapter of Iraq's National Adaptation Plan for IOM Iraq — interviews, focus groups and field visits across Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, now part of Iraq's UNFCCC submission.
As consultant to UNDP Iraq in 2024, Enlil Center mobilised ministry data, drafted the mitigation and finance sections and trained the 14-ministry committee on Article 6 carbon markets for Iraq's US$82.85 billion Climate Investment Plan.
