Azerbaijani official: Not all countries fulfill obligations to protect environment PHOTO/VIDEO

Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Sahiba Gafarova, during her working visit to New York, has delivered a speech at the UN high-level meeting on "Role of waste-free production as a transformational solution for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals".

The high-level meeting was devoted to the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on the basis of the Zero Waste initiative put forward by Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan, the Press and PR Department of the Azerbaijani parliament told Report.

While speaking at the meeting, Emine Erdogan said that people are part of the diversity of our planet, based on balanced and deep relationships.

She noted that from this point of view, the future sustainability of the Earth, which is home to millions of living beings, requires a sensitive attitude and the duty of everyone to protect our planet.

Touching upon such global problems as waste, climate change and food shortages, Emine Erdogan stressed that humanity should fight these problems together. As in case of other issues, here the world is more than five countries.

Then Gafarova delivered a speech.

She stressed that the meeting was devoted to a very topical issue, environmental protection holds a leading position among the big problems faced by mankind.

She noted that our common task is to make the world a better place for the sake of present and future generations.

In this regard, Gafarova pointed to the great importance of the Zero Waste Initiative, launched by Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan in 2017 at the national level and which was supported worldwide in the form of a special resolution of the UN General Assembly.

The speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament noted that Azerbaijan supported this resolution, acting as its co-author. At the same time, Azerbaijani First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva signed the "Declaration on a global commitment to zero emissions for the sake of the world, which is our common home".

According to the message, an integrated approach to environmental protection by widely using all available components seems to be the only effective way to succeed in this issue, therefore the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an important means of achieving our common goals.

“This issue is also a priority for Azerbaijan, which has adopted a national plan and strategy that pays special attention to environmental protection and is adapted to the most important tasks and plans of the SDGs. A clean environment and "green" development are one of the five priority spheres of the new development strategy until 2030. The socio-economic development strategy for 2022-2026 envisages the improvement of the effective waste management system, the formation of an appropriate database and e-information system, as well as the expansion of the coverage of waste recycling,” the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament added.

Gafarova regretted that all countries have moral and legal obligations to protect the environment, for the sake of present and future generations, but not all countries fulfill these obligations.

“Armenia's occupation of 20 percent of the internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan, which lasted for almost 30 years, was accompanied by environmental terrorism. Armenia destroyed our forests and nature reserves, illegally used natural resources, polluted the soil and rivers, including transboundary rivers flowing from Armenia to Azerbaijan. Having liberated its lands from the Armenian occupation in 2020, Azerbaijan began large-scale restoration work in these territories. Environmentally sustainable cities and villages are being built in Karabakh and East Zangazur in accordance with "smart cities and villages", "green energy", "zero emissions" and "zero waste" concepts. Agali village, to which internally displaced people have already returned, is the first successful example of this approach,” she noted.