Abstract

A vast body of literature has established how armed conflicts and wars are harmful to the environment, and it is generally assumed that peace should be beneficial to it. This article investigates the understudied environmental and energy discourse and policies of an armed insurgency turned national government after a protracted war, with the case of the Taliban regime following their August 2021 complete takeover of Afghanistan. This article reviews the official discourse of the former rebel group on these matters, uses stakeholders interviews (from the Taliban government, independent experts, and the opposition), and deploys remote sensing techniques to assess and understand the gap between the regime's declared intentions to fight climate change, and the reality of deforestation across the country on the one hand (for firewood, timber exports, and opium poppy cultivation), as well as the strong development of poorly regulated coal production and exports. These elements, as well as the lack of investments in the renewable energy sector, constitute a historical continuation of the neglect of the environment and a contradiction to the official discourse of grave concern over climate change and the environment.

Keywords: Afghanistan, climate change, coal mining, deforestation, energy policy, Taliban

How to Cite:

Lambert, L. A., Tayah, J., Adam, H. & Esmail, S., (2025) “From rebel governance to energy and environmental policies in a post-war setting: The case of the Taliban in Afghanistan”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1): 6985. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.6985