By hosting COP29, Azerbaijan to take the lead in fight against climate change Kenya’s NGO president says

President of the Kenya’s NGO Consortium of Grassroots for Environmental Protection Eliud Emery has said that the decision to hold the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku following COP28 in Dubai was a strategic step that resolved the geopolitical deadlock on the choice of the host country for the next session, which the parties could not agree on.

He recalled that almost 200 countries, including Armenia, had expressed their approval of Azerbaijan's election as the organizer of this year's regular session, Report informs.

"In response to criticism by some participants against climate conferences held by oil-producing countries, Azerbaijan is demonstrating its commitment to the green agenda with investments in wind and solar energy. Also important are efforts to lay an electric cable under the Black Sea to transmit green energy produced at wind farms in the Caspian Sea to Europe. Azerbaijan is really committed to this idea and strives to achieve it," he noted.

According to international data, including bp's 2021 statistical review, Azerbaijan's natural gas reserves are estimated at 2.5 trillion cubic meters. Greenhouse gas emissions from burning natural gas are lower than coal and other oil fossil fuels. And Azerbaijan, a country that produces and exports gas, is recognized globally as a transition of fuel from conventional to renewable energy, said the president of a Kenyan NGO, expressing support for Azerbaijan as the COP29 host country.

Eliud Emery emphasized the importance of participation of countries such as Azerbaijan in the coalition to combat climate change and peaceful agenda: "It is not by chance that the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that oil exporting countries should set an example and be at the forefront of the energy transition, and holding COP in these countries is an additional incentive for this, not a paradox".

According to him, the key topics for discussion at COP29 should be biodiversity laws, Arctic science, the hydrosphere, international climate diplomacy, as well as climate change and public health.

"Funds to respond to climate change should be provided to non-state subjects, not governments, so that we can monitor and see the value for money in implementing the resolutions that are agreed every year, we can audit progress, we can see the effects and results of the activities undertaken," Emery added.