TEHRAN – The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has asked the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help in dealing with the drought in the southeastern part of the country.

So that, in the coming months, funds from the Emergency Response Fund will be provided to the IRCS in the form of international aid, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

Hassan Esfandiar, director of operations and humanitarian programs of the IRCS, announced the invitation of David Fisher, an expert of the IFRC, to prepare a plan and allocate some budget to deal with the drought in Iran.

“This will be done in two steps. The first phase will be funded by the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) in the near future, often in the south and southeast of the country to quickly address drought-related problems, such as family health, livelihood assistance, and immediate drinking water supply.

Last water year did not receive good amounts of rain and unfortunately, it is predicted that the current water year (began on September 23) to be a year of drought and water shortage,” he added.

Iran is more vulnerable to climate change than the world standard and drought is one of the important manifestations of climate change. In some parts of the country, there has been a continuous drought for more than 4 decades. Floods are the other effect of climate change.

Now in some provinces, despite the drought; Floods occur at the same time. Heavy rainfall in drought-prone areas is very dangerous.

Insufficient measures

Although climate change and global warming may occur as part of natural processes due to fluctuations in sunlight intensity, deviations in the Earth's path, and volcanic activity; after the Industrial Revolution and the increasing consumption of fossil fuels, the earth is increasingly under the impact of human activities.

Iran is more vulnerable to climate change than the world standard. Greenhouse gases emitted from sources such as cars, airplanes, landfills, etc., cause global warming in the long run, and in the short term, will cause more severe and unusual weather events such as increased floods and droughts.

Since 1992, climate change has attracted the world's attention, following the UN Convention on Climate Change, which aims to stabilize the volume of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere to prevent future climate problems.

The Paris Agreement was ratified in 2015 with the participation of 174 countries and the European Union within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The purpose of the Paris Agreement is to control climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by countries and preventing global warming by more than 2 degrees Celsius and trying to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Currently, Iran is a member of the international treaty.

Hossein Khajehpour, a faculty member at the Sharif University of Technology, pointed to the impact of human action and greenhouse gas emissions on climate change by 50 percent, highlighting that the remaining 50 percent is beyond human control and solar activity is the most important factor.

Not serious actions taken on reducing climate change in Iran, while developed countries are taking ambitious action nationally, with 36 countries seeking to zero greenhouse gas emissions; so that Iran ranks sixth greenhouse gas emitter in the world, he explained.

Referring to the 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union, he said that “These changes make us know that oil can be used other than incineration and the country can take advantage of opportunities in this area.”

Amir Sarkardeh, a meteorologist, stated that in temporal variability, the rainfall that should occur during the year for a city falls in a few days, and in spatial variability, annual precipitation decreases than before.

Criticizing the infrastructure for adaptation to climate change in the country, he said that “While everyone in the world is concerned about climate change, there has been no adaptation policies in the country, as well as crisis management.”

FB/MG