(Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani on Sunday kicked off an initiative to plant 5 million trees and palms across the country in an attempt to alleviate some of the deleterious impacts of climate change, a statement from his office said.

Iraq has suffered years of drought, and more than 7 million people have been effected or lost their incomes from agriculture and fishing, Al-Sudani’s office said. The war-torn, oil rich country has experienced higher temperatures, persistent drought, an increase in dust storms and a crop area cut by half, all impacts of extreme weather caused by climate change.

“We launched the vegetation development project aiming at combating desertification through making important contracts with specialized international companies, especially in the areas where dust storms emerge locally,” Al-Sudani said in the statement.

Read more: Bigger Dust Storms Are Happening More Frequently: Green Insight

He urged Iraq’s allies, as well as the United Nations, to support the country’s efforts to address climate change, and he added that a monopoly on water control by neighboring upstream countries increases its vulnerability to water shortages. Iraq will call for a regional climate conference to be held in Baghdad soon, he added.

Iraq is moving ahead with projects to help the environment by signing contracts to generate solar power to cover a third of the country’s power need by 2030. Iraq also recently pledged to decrease carbon emissions. 

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.