From November 10 to 22, the 30th Session (COP30) of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held in Belem, Brazil, and on November 6-7, the Session’s Leaders Summit took place. The delegation representing the Republic of Azerbaijan at the Leaders Summit was headed by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Sahiba Gafarova. The Speaker of the National Assembly delivered a statement on behalf of the Republic of Azerbaijan and held bilateral meetings with several heads of state.
This was noted in a press release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the delegation’s participation in COP30.
It was reported that on the official opening day of COP30, the presidency of the COP was handed over from the Republic of Azerbaijan to Brazil. Muxtar Babayev, the President of Azerbaijan’s Representative on Climate Issues and Chair of COP29, spoke at the opening session of COP30, sharing information about the historic results achieved within the framework of COP29 held last year in Baku, as well as the activities carried out by our country during its presidency of the COP. M. Babayev also participated in and spoke at several events organized within COP30 as the chair of COP29 and conducted bilateral meetings with other delegation leaders.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) delegation participated in both segments of COP30. Within the conference, the MFA delegation was involved in negotiations aimed at adopting decisions planned to be finalized at the conclusion of the conference. Azerbaijan was tasked with conducting negotiations and coordinating two important decisions.
Following authority given by COP30 Chair Andre do Lago to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Yalchin Rafiev and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Brazil Mauricio Lyrio to conduct negotiations between the candidate countries for hosting COP31—Turkey and Australia—after intensive negotiations over 12 days, the decision was made to award the hosting of COP31 to Turkey.
Additionally, within COP30, the COP Chair mandated the Azerbaijani and Norwegian delegations to lead and conduct inter-state negotiations on behalf of the COP regarding the coordination process of documents connected to the Global Stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement. The Azerbaijani side was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiev, while the Norwegian side was led by Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen.
As a result of discussions with all negotiation groups, the Azerbaijani and Norwegian sides submitted their recommendations on possible draft decisions to the Brazilian Presidency of COP31, and these discussions contributed to the adoption of corresponding decisions on the relevant documents.
The MFA delegation also conducted five events related to initiatives proposed within the COP29 Chair’s Action Agenda on peace and migration, water, health, cities, and climate transparency topics. Additionally, the Azerbaijani delegation supported as co-organizers several events on initiatives regarding renewable energy, hydrogen, and agriculture.
Moreover, in accordance with the Baku Finance Target decision adopted within COP29, the Azerbaijani and Brazilian sides prepared the “Roadmap from Baku to Belem” to raise global climate finance to 1.3 trillion USD and presented it within COP30.
