Azerbaijan aims for finalisation of carbon trading rules at COP29

Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev has said that Baku urged the countries involved in COP29 to engage in constructive dialogue regarding carbon emission trading rules.

"One of the tools for sustainable climate financing is carbon trading, as outlined in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. While significant progress has been made in this area over the past decade, the rules governing emission trading quotas under this article remain unfinished. At the Baku COP29, we encourage all participating countries to be constructive to achieve meaningful progress in negotiations on this article, and there are good opportunities for this," Babayev stated during Baku Climate Action Week on September 30, Caliber.Az reports. 

The minister noted that one of the priority issues during Azerbaijan's presidency at COP29 is the biennial transparency reports known as BTRs.

"We aim to present our country's BTR by the 29th session of COP29 to set an example for others. We take this opportunity to urge all countries to finalise and submit their BTR documents to the convention secretariat by the 29th session, or at the latest by the end of this year," the minister said.

Babayev also noted that Azerbaijan has nominated itself to host the 17th meeting of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2026. 

The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Azerbaijan this November. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary session in Dubai on December 11, 2023. 

During two weeks, Baku will become a global hub, welcoming around 70,000 to 80,000 international guests. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, aimed at preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system. 

The abbreviation COP means "Conference of the Parties" and refers to the highest decision-making body responsible for overseeing the implementation of the UNFCCC. The Convention has 198 member states. Unless otherwise decided by the parties, the COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in Berlin in March 1995, and its secretariat is based in Bonn.

By Naila Huseynova