Grifters are gonna grift, and the Taliban has recognizing that there’s a lot of money to be made from the climate change cabal. Furthermore, what better way to distract western leftist elitists from the horror that is Taliban rule than to join them in calling for climate actions? After Joe Biden surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban in August, globalists made a show of calling on the Taliban to become responsible members of the “global community.” Now’s the time to suddenly care about the planet.

“Afghanistan has a fragile climate,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen recently lamented. “There is need for tremendous work.” Therefore, he added, “Some climate change projects which have already been approved and were funded by Green Climate Fund, UNDP, Afghan Aid, should fully resume work.”

Angling to put any concerns of climate activists’ safety to rest, Shaheen asserted, “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is committed to providing security and a safe environment for the work of NGOs and charity organizations.” Never mind the Taliban’s murderous track record when it comes to aid and charity workers. Never mind the “security” the Taliban provided at Kabul airport just before 13 Americans and a hundred Afghans were murdered by suicide bombers.

As political analyst Robert Spencer put it, tongue firmly planted in cheek, “Apparently, the Taliban would have us believe that in between executing allies of the United States, confiscating guns, setting women on fire and making sure they don’t work or go to school, and persecuting Shi'ite Hazaras, their jihadis just really want to spend some time working on clean energy programs and making Afghanistan green.”

Apparently, the UN climate alarmists are more than willing to take the Taliban at their word. The Daily Mail reports that “relief agencies have warned that a drought in Afghanistan, which UN scientists say has been worsened by climate change, could force 22 million into ‘acute food insecurity.’” Funny how “climate change” rather than Biden’s ceding of Afghanistan to the backwards Taliban is being pointed to as the existential threat to Afghani livelihoods.

In fact, Biden’s State Department plans on “providing nearly $144 million in new humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, where millions of people could face acute hunger this winter unless aid arrives soon.” Wasn’t one of Biden’s arguments for leaving Afghanistan that we were wasting money there? Now, without an actual U.S. presence in the country — well, besides the Americans he abandoned there — we’re going to just send money.

Not to worry. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pinky promises, “To be clear, this humanitarian assistance will benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban, whom we will continue to hold accountable for the commitments they have made.”

How we’re going to do that without a single American soldier in the country is an utter mystery.

Meanwhile, after Biden napped through speeches at the UN’s climate change summit, the best he could muster for the absence of the world’s number one carbon emitter, China, was an oh-so-threatening message that Xi Jinping has made “a big mistake.” Well, that’s certain to get Beijing to change its ways. Maybe it’ll even put the fear of Gaia into the Taliban.