COP30 director: Baku is a key stage on the road to COP31

Climate Week in Baku represents an important milestone on the global climate action agenda, COP30 Executive Director and Brazil’s National Secretary for Climate Change Ana Toni said.

Speaking at a High-Level Ceremony held as part of Climate Week in Baku on September 9, Toni stressed that the event should not be viewed merely as another stop on the road to COP31, Caliber.Az correspondent reports from the venue.

“This is not just another week. We have started the decade of implementation. And this week, the climate action agenda here in Baku will take another step toward implementation because we are closer to the implementers in this region and in this country. That is the importance of Climate Weeks,” she said.

“So Baku is not just another stop on the road to COP31. It is an important stage of implementation,” Toni added.

She said that at COP30, in cooperation with climate leaders and the presidencies of COP29 and COP31, a five-year plan based on six areas of joint work had been agreed.

“There are now very serious plans to accelerate implementation,” Toni said.

According to the COP30 executive director, the international community has made significant progress over the past decade in building the framework of the Paris Agreement. The focus now, however, must shift toward putting those commitments into practice.

“Over the past 10 years, we have done a great deal to build the architecture of the Paris Agreement. But I think there is also an understanding that we now need to accelerate implementation,” she said.

Toni highlighted the importance of the five-year plan agreed at COP30 and linked to the Global Stocktake, saying the UN Climate Week in Baku is aimed at bringing global climate processes closer to the regions, sectors and stakeholders responsible for implementation.

She said the priority should be to move “from commitments to solutions, from solutions to implementation, and from implementation to measurable results.”

“Where implementation is not moving forward, we need to understand why it is stalled and what we can do together to address some of the challenges,” Toni said.

She also welcomed the approach being adopted by COP31, saying its structure builds on the six areas developed jointly at COP30 while adding its own priorities, urgency and pragmatic approach.

“Therefore, we need to accelerate solutions, and I am 100% confident that COP31 will take us to a new stage of implementation, helping countries and different sectors move faster and forward,” Toni said.

By Kheyraddin Nasirzade