Most of Iraq's environmental and economic problems are governance problems first. Enlil Center is an independent policy research center in Baghdad studying how Iraqi institutions decide, coordinate and deliver, and where they fall short.
Our governance work asks how policy actually gets made and implemented in Iraq: which ministry holds which mandate, how data moves (or does not) between institutions, why laws such as the environmental protection law go unenforced, and what local government can and cannot do. Much of it draws on interviews with senior officials across the environment, water, planning, oil and municipal portfolios and on the team's work coordinating inter-ministerial processes for the NDC and the Climate Investment Plan.
This page collects our governance reports, articles and datasets, including the Worldwide Governance Indicators for Iraq and our analysis of waste, environmental law and institutional reform.
Iraq has scrapped the last 5% duty on solar equipment. Trade data show households had already imported about 1.9 GW of panels in 2025, thirty times what official statistics count. What matters now is the 40-article rulebook for connecting them to the grid.
Iraq declared an environmental emergency over Tigris-Euphrates pollution on 24 September 2026, the latest of several responses this year. Enlil traces the pattern and what enforcement would actually require.
Iraq is joining a 112-country solar alliance while renewables supply just 3.8% of its electricity. Enlil traces what membership can and cannot fix.
Iraq charges students and researchers for official data under budget-law fee powers dating from 2016, while its right-to-information bill stalls in Parliament. Enlil Research Unit traces the instruments and sets out five fixes.
Iraq is heading into the summer of 2026 with a record demand forecast, a collapsing Iranian gas supply and a grid that already failed once in March. Othman Kareem examines why an oil-and-gas-rich country still cannot keep the lights on, and what a way out would require.
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.
Enlil Center is the national partner to IGES and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition on policy and legislative recommendations to end open waste burning in Iraq — stakeholder consultations, governance analysis and a proposed Iraq Waste Framework reviewed with the Ministry of Environment.
