Azerbaijan urges increased contributions to Green Climate Fund

COP29 President and Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev emphasized the urgent need for increased financing to effectively combat climate change. 

"Azerbaijan is actively seeking to mobilize all potential resources for climate finance," Babayev said at the panel session at Pre-COP29 in Baku highlighting the pressing need for a substantial increase in financing, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

“We continue to advocate for enhanced contributions to the Green Climate Fund, but it’s important to recognize that not all funding can come from the public sector. Currently, only 2 per cent of climate finance is sourced from the private sector. Multilateral development banks and international financial institutions must play a crucial role in attracting private sector investments. We are collaborating with these institutions to maximize scale, efficiency, and accessibility to climate finance,” Babayev stated.

The global community must prioritize climate finance, emphasized Una May Gordon, a representative from the International Institute for Climate and Development, during the Ministerial Meeting on Climate and Development (C&DM) on the second day of Pre-COP29 in Baku.

She called for increased efforts to translate the plans established during COP28 in Dubai into actionable steps, stating, “The next two years will be critical for us in the climate negotiations, particularly concerning emission reductions.”

Currently, Baku is hosting the second ministerial meeting on Climate and Development (C&DM) as part of the UN Preliminary Conference of Parties on Climate Change (Pre-COP29), which began on October 10.

This significant panel meeting brings together environment and ecology ministers from various nations to address the priorities of climate-vulnerable countries.

The discussions within the C&DM framework are vital for ensuring that the needs of least-developed countries and small island states are met, particularly in the context of global climate finance negotiations.

The inaugural ministerial meeting took place during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. The Pre-COP29 conference, themed “Enhance Ambitions and Enable Action,” is being held at the Heydar Aliyev Center, focusing on strategies to achieve a successful outcome at COP29, which will conclude on October 11.

By Tamilla Hasanova