Iraq

THE REPUBLIC OF Iraq, located in the Middle East astride the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, has a land area of 169,234 sq. mi. (434,924 sq. km.), a population of 28,993,000 (2006 est.), and a population density of 171 people per sq. mi. (66 people per sq. km.). Baghdad, the capital and the largest city, has a population of 5,831,000.

The Iraqi economy is heavily reliant on oil, and 12 percent of the land is arable, with a further 9 percent used for meadows and pasture. To try to reduce the reliance on imports from overseas, the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein embarked on a process of turning the land in the delta of the Tigris and the Euphrates into farmland, alienating many of the Marsh Arabs in the area, and leading to major environmental changes in that region. During the Gulf War, 1990–91, many oil wells in Kuwait were set on fire, leading to massive environmental pollution in the region, and having a considerable effect on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Because of the low price of gasoline in the country and increasing affluence during the 1990s, in 1998, some 90 percent of the country's CO2 emissions came from liquid fuels, with a further 7 percent from gaseous fuels. The rate of CO2 emissions per capita remained low, with 2.6 metric tons per person in 1990, reaching 3.4 metric tons in 1994, and then falling to 2.7 metric tons by 2003, a rate similar to that of its eastern neighbor Syria, which has no significant petroleum facilities. In spite of the reliance on petroleum, there have been studies of the possible use of solar power and wind power in Iraq. The studies have shown that there is clear capacity for solar power to heat domestic water and to supply continuous hot water to all the major population centers in the country.

The Iraqi government did not ratify the Vienna Convention and sent an observer to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992, but did not sign the agreement. Iraq is one of the few major countries whose government has not expressed a position on the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.