Global praise affirms COP29's historic impact and Azerbaijan's role in climate action Organizing Committee member shares insights in interview

Azerbaijani lawmaker Parvana Valiyeva, a member of the COP29 Organizing Committee, recently sat down for an engaging interview with local media. She shared expectations for COP29, highlighting Azerbaijan's pivotal role in the global fight against climate change and other issues. Caliber.Az presents the interview to its readers. 

- Mrs. Valiyeva, it is well known that one of the world’s most prestigious events, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Baku from November 11 to 22 of this year. What are the main expectations from COP29?

- The main expectation from COP29 is the agreement of a new financial amount for climate action to be paid by developed countries to developing ones. While the previous climate finance target of $100 billion was to be paid by 2020, it was reached only in 2022, according to reports.

The main goal facing the Parties at COP29 will be to determine the new amount. The current financial target of $100 billion is not enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and solve the problems of countries most affected by climate change.

- Then other steps are required …

- Indeed, this target needs to be significantly increased to at least $500 billion or even $1 trillion. The global community expects this from developed countries. Serious work should be done in this area.

In this matter, first of all, G7 and to some extent, G20 countries should understand their responsibility, make appropriate decisions and reach a consensus.

- What can you say about Azerbaijan's efforts as COP29 Presidency?

- Azerbaijan's COP29 Presidency is making every effort to reach an agreement on a new climate finance goal between developed and developing countries and achieve a result based on consensus. The COP29 Presidency calls on developed countries and international financial institutions to take action and it is carrying out continuous engagement to support this objective. In addition, meetings are held on a regular basis and in a constructive manner with Parties, international organisations and other stakeholders.

As an example, we hosted informal consultations with Heads of Delegations in Azerbaijan from July 25-28, 2024 to discuss the key issues on the COP29 agenda.

- Is Azerbaijan’s COP29 Presidency praised by the international community and does COP29 receive the necessary level of international support?

- The COP29 Presidency attaches special importance to the problems of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), countries that suffer the most from the negative effects of climate change, and the support Azerbaijan has provided to them is appreciated by the international community.

Recently, the Pact for the Future was adopted as the key result of the Summit of the Future held in New York on September 22-23. This document outlines the primary areas of countries’ actions in the coming years and contains a separate paragraph on COP29.

Also, a number of heads of state and government ministers referred to COP29 in their speeches both in the Summit of the Future and the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that COP29 is approaching and said that the outcome of the event should be a new climate finance target.

The President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that the most important factors in providing support for developing countries in the context of climate change are finance, technology sharing and capacity building. He believes that COP29 Azerbaijan will contribute to the solution of these issues.

During the session, developing countries called for the amount of climate finance to increase from $100 billion during COP29 Azerbaijan.

In addition, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Monaco, Kenya, Fiji and other states referred to COP29 in their speeches in New York.

This demonstrates the importance of COP29 as a historic event and highlights Azerbaijan's leading role in combatting climate change, which is one of the biggest problems currently affecting the world.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stressed that developed and developing countries should contribute to the solution of climate problems within their capabilities instead of accusing and blaming each other for climate change. Although our country is working towards achieving the historic agreement in Baku, the Baku Agreement, joint efforts and the constructive participation of all Parties are needed to achieve tangible progress. All parties have a collective responsibility in this matter.

- Can we hope that during the Baku conference states will reach a consensus with the leadership of Azerbaijan on the issue of climate change, one of the biggest problems of our time?

- COP29 has called on the international community to reach a consensus on an ambitious new climate finance goal. If no consensus is reached in Baku, then it will have a negative impact on the future of climate negotiations.

As President Ilham Aliyev emphasized, our country will spare no effort during COP29 to create a bridge between developed and developing countries, achieve consensus and ensure COP29 is a success.