Azerbaijan, WB working on green economy projects

Jointly with the World Bank (WB), Azerbaijan has implemented 49 projects worth $3.2 million so far.

The statement came from the Azerbaijani Deputy Economy Minister Samad Bashirli at the presentation of the report "Azerbaijan on the way to green development", held on the joint initiative of the Ministry and the WB, Report informs.

He said three other joint projects with the WB are underway, one of which is the "Solid Waste Management Project" in support of the green economy, which won a World Bank award.

In addition, the deputy minister said that Azerbaijan has joined the UN member states' Agenda 2030 initiative on global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2016-2030, approved at the 2015 Sustainable Development Summit, which includes 17 goals and 169 targets: "The implementation of the commitments made to these global initiatives has become a critical component of public policy.”

In this context, the integration of economic, social and environmental factors into a single form, the promotion of a green economy, is of particular importance in the implementation of the SDGs in Azerbaijan, Bashirli remarked.

“Our country is the first country in the region to submit three voluntary national reports to the UN High-Level Political Forum (in 2017, 2019 and 2021) as the outcome of the work done on the SDGs, which is a clear example of the importance the Azerbaijani government attaches to the SDG commitments.”

Bashirli said thanks to the work done, Azerbaijan ranked 50th among 163 countries in the Sustainable Development Report 2022, published annually to analyse the implementation of SDGs in UN member states, with 73.5 points out of a possible 100, and our country has moved up by 5 positions in this indicator compared to its position in the 2021 report.

“Moreover, as a result of the activities carried out in the environmental sphere and projects implemented to support the green economy, Azerbaijan ranked 10th in the Asian region in the Green Growth Index. In comparison, Türkiye ranks 18th in this index, Armenia 21st, Kazakhstan 25th, and Tajikistan 30th,” he concluded.