Official: Financing climate initiatives for children - priority for Azerbaijan within COP29

The COP29’s official X page has raised the issue of children in climate action as part of discussions ahead of the UN climate conference to be held in Baku in November this year.

“Children are among those most impacted by the climate crisis and they must be at the heart of the climate process,” the post reads, Caliber.Az reports.

This topic was discussed at the UNICEF headquarters in New York as part of the High-Level Week at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.

“Azerbaijan's Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, COP29 President-designate Mukhtar Babayev and COP29 Youth Climate Champion Leyla Hasanova participated in a roundtable discussion in New York organized by UNICEF. Babayev noted that children are among those most affected by the climate crisis and they should be the focus of climate action,” COP29 information says.

Babayev emphasized at the meeting that financing climate initiatives for children and creating sustainable social infrastructure to protect against the effects of climate change is a priority for Azerbaijan within COP29.

UNICEF Deputy Director Kitty Van Der Heijden mentioned that for the first time in the 30-year history of this organization, the impact of climate change on children is considered as part of the critical process and therefore included in the agenda of COP29.

The decision to hold the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku on November 11-22 was made at the plenary session of COP28 in Dubai on December 11, 2023. For two weeks Baku will turn into a global center that will host from 70,000 to 80,000 international guests.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 aimed at preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.

The acronym COP stands for “Conference of the Parties” and refers to the highest decision-making body responsible for overseeing implementation of the UNFCCC. The Convention has 198 member states. Unless otherwise decided by the parties, the COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in Berlin in March 1995, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.

By Khagan Isayev