Azerbaijan promoting UN green agenda Review by Caliber.Az

Azerbaijan is making every effort to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) until 2030, including the international program on green transformation adopted in 2015. As SDG priorities, the government of the republic has identified work on the restoration of the Karabakh region, projects in the field of alternative energy, decarbonization of industry, digitalization of the economy, as well as the “green” transformation of the financial sector that meets ESG criteria. Achievements and plans in this direction were discussed yesterday in Baku during the third “Dialogue on SDGs”, dedicated to the topic “Outcomes of the Global Summit on SDGs 2023 and the role of Supreme Audit Institutions in the implementation of the SDGs.”

The UN international program adopted in 2015 provides for accelerating the global transition to renewable energy sources (RES) and decarbonization of global industry, expanding the scale of digitalization, and creating societies based on lifelong learning and the introduction of know-how in the economy. Global SDG priorities also included ensuring decent work and social protection for people, increasing the number of jobs in the green and digital economy to overcome difficulties in the fight against climate change, and creating new opportunities for the development of economies without a rich resource base.

“Despite the fact that we are halfway towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the process of implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the world is moving very slowly, and for some goals, the situation is even lower than the baseline in 2015, when the Sustainable Development Agenda was adopted,” Azerbaijani Deputy Economy Minister Sahib Mammadov said in his address to the third “Dialogue on SDGs” forum in Baku on October 23.

According to the recent report of the UN Secretary General on the implementation of the SDGs in 2023, today only 15% of the goals are being successfully implemented. Unfortunately, the events of recent years - the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the resulting energy, food, and transport crises, and unprecedentedly high inflation - have diverted the attention of international forces from the agenda of the global energy transition. The global recession and trade decline in 2023, the slowdown in the EU and US economies and huge income losses in developing countries are also not conducive to accelerating the implementation of the SDG targets, not to mention new risks in light of a new round of the Palestinian-Israeli war, which could ignite a large-scale fire throughout the Middle East.

Against this very difficult background, there are not so many countries in the world today, especially developing ones, where they have managed to maintain at an acceptable level the pace of implementation of the SDG targets, including in the field of the “Great Energy Transition of 2030”. Azerbaijan can certainly be counted among these few, consistently implementing UN initiatives and making its contribution to the work for the sustainable development of the future world.

“Azerbaijan is one of 32 countries in the world that presented national commitments to improve the SDGs within the framework of the profile summit held in the UN General Assembly in September 2023. This document reflects the goals set in the country's socio-economic development strategy for 2022-2026, as well as the results of the first and second SDG dialogues on green transformation, social and economic inclusion. The political declaration adopted following the summit serves as a new roadmap for achieving the SDGs by 2030,” the deputy economy minister noted during the forum. According to him, next year Azerbaijan plans to submit to the UN the next, fourth, Voluntary National Report on the implementation of the SDGs, work on which is already underway.

So, how does the Azerbaijani government prioritize the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and what has the country achieved in this regard recently? Speaking at the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov highlighted these issues, noting that the main priority of the Azerbaijani government in the process of implementing the SDGs is the reconstruction and restoration of territories liberated from occupation:

“Greening and decarbonization trends in the global economy create opportunities for the development of resource-poor economies, and from this point of view, Karabakh and East Zangezur have significant potential that attracts the attention of foreign investors.”

Work is underway in the republic to multiply generation in the renewable energy sector, and such projects with the attraction of foreign investments are being implemented in the Karabakh region, where a “green” energy zone is being formed, where about one and a half dozen small hydroelectric power stations have been built from scratch and restored, and high-tech agricultural complexes are being put into operation in smart villages using wind generators and solar panels, and the base of future industry with a low level of carbonization is being formed.

All work in Karabakh is carried out in accordance with the UN sustainable development plan. Similar processes in other regions are fully consistent with the principles of the SDGs. In the next decade, the country plans to increase the share of green energy from the current 17% to 30% of total generating capacity. For these purposes, work is underway to lay the Black Sea Energy underwater electric cable along the bottom of the Black Sea. This energy line with a capacity of 1000 MW is intended to supply electricity generated in the renewable energy sector of Azerbaijan to Europe. To develop the wind energy potential of the Caspian Sea, foreign investments are being attracted, projects for the production of “green” hydrogen are being prepared, powerful solar stations are being built in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, energy efficiency plans are being implemented in the utility sector of Ganja, etc.

Although Azerbaijan has made significant progress in implementing the UN green agenda over the past three years, serious obstacles slowing down the implementation of multidisciplinary socio-economic projects and rehabilitation of liberated lands still remain, and the main problem remains the heavily mined territories of the Karabakh region by the Armenian occupiers.

“It is no coincidence that the Azerbaijani president put forward an initiative to add mine action to the UN 2030 Agenda as the 18th Sustainable Development Goal, and this project, consisting of five goals and 15 indicators, was prepared and presented to the local and international public. These tasks include clearing territories of mines and unexploded ordnance, increasing spending in this direction, involving land in agricultural circulation and other economic activities, which is designed to improve the standard of living of the population,” Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov said.

Azerbaijan’s initiative is very timely and relevant, since Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, African countries and Ukraine, which has been at war for the second year, are facing the problem of mining. And taking into account the enormous humanitarian risks and obstacles to economic activity, this initiative should find support from the states party to the SDG agreement.

One way or another, our country’s unprecedented efforts to implement the SDGs are supported and understood at the global level, including at the UN, which proposes to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan.

“Stable, sufficient financial opportunities are needed to keep up with development, and one of these sources of financing is the state budget. The UN family will constantly work with partners in Azerbaijan and within the framework of this summit, we will hold useful discussions and plan to expand our cooperation,” UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Vladanka Andreeva said during the forum in Baku.

Mobilizing funding sources for the implementation of the UN program is the most important and at the same time, difficult task: this year, Azerbaijan, with the support of the UN Development Program, has developed a methodology for linking government spending with SDG targets.

“The initial linking of budget expenditure items to SDG targets shows that a total of 82 per cent of the review budget in 2022 is related to SDG targets, and this figure is approximately 23% of last year’s GDP,” Deputy Economy Minister Sahib Mammadov indicates.

However, the implementation of large-scale initiatives within the framework of the SDGs only through government funding is very problematic, and all over the world private investors and banks are involved in these tasks. A qualitatively new capital market is also being formed that meets ESG criteria in relation to the environment, society, and corporate governance. Our country is gradually moving along a similar path of transformation of the financial sector.

“We are carefully studying the experience of other regulators in developing the principles of green finance, and this will help us form a separate regulatory and legal framework in this area,” Ziya Aliyev, General Director of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, told the forum.