EBRD: Azerbaijan - leader in Caucasus in solar, wind energy development

Regional Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the Caucasus Alkis Vrienios Drakinos has said that the EBDR stands ready to work closely with Azerbaijan to make COP29 a successful and impactful event contributing to the achievement of common goals on sustainable development and climate change.

"Our team in Baku, as well as those in different countries, will support Azerbaijan in using the opportunities presented by the conference to mobilise green finance at national, regional and global levels," Drakinos told Trend.

Drakinos noted that Azerbaijan's role in promoting measures to combat climate change and achieve sustainable development goals is becoming increasingly important.

"The country has taken a leading position in the Caucasus in deploying solar and wind power generation capacity and the EBRD has played an important role in facilitating this. As the largest institutional investor in Azerbaijan and a region's climate finance leader, we are a natural partner for Azerbaijan's ambitious decarbonisation programme," said the regional director.

The EBRD representative recalled that the bank had recently financed the construction of the first private general-purpose wind farm in the Absheron and Khizi districts after investing in the first general-purpose solar power plant in Garadagh last year.

"We are also improving energy efficiency in the city of Ganja through our flagship Green Cities Programme. On the policy side, our cooperation on renewable energy auctions has led to the planned development of a solar power plant project in Garadagh. We now want to help build on this momentum and believe COP29 is a great opportunity," Drakinos concluded.