BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 19. Zambia is facing the worst impacts of climate change, causing its worst drought in 40 years, the country's Minister of Green Economy and Environment Mike Mposha said in the national statement at the COP29 summit today, Trend reports.
According to him, climate change has significantly hindered food, energy, and water security, as well as the living conditions of millions of people.
"The country’s agricultural production has more than halved, and hydropower production has virtually disappeared due to low water levels in rivers. Drought has affected 84 out of 116 districts in Zambia, impacting 9.8 million people out of 20 million, with 6.6 million citizens urgently requiring humanitarian assistance. These events have severely impacted the country’s economy, as key sectors that drive economic growth have been affected," he pointed out.
Mposha also emphasized that several important goals need to be achieved at COP29: the adoption of a new collective financial target that will link the severity of climate change impacts with the necessary funding for developing countries; continued work on the global adaptation goal and the adoption of indicators for it at the next summit in Brazil; completion of the carbon market rulebook under the Paris Agreement; and accelerating the work of the Loss and Damage Fund to provide financing to countries most affected by climate change.
To note, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which will run until November 22, opened at the Baku Olympic Stadium on November 11. It is the largest event organized by Azerbaijan to date, and the first time in the region that it is being held in Azerbaijan.
Within COP29, the highest level event - the summit of world leaders on climate action - was held on November 12–13.
The main expectation from COP29 is to agree on a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantitative Goal (NCQG) on climate finance. The COP29 chairmanship has launched 14 initiatives that include linkages between climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, including green energy corridors, green energy storage, harmony for climate resilience, clean hydrogen, methane reduction in organic waste, action on green digital technologies, and other topics.
In addition to being a top priority that creates the conditions for action, creating climate finance will also help fulfill the 1.5°C pledge by bringing everyone together.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate system. The acronym COP (Conference of Parties) stands for “Conference of Parties” and is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
A total of 198 countries are parties to the Convention. Unless otherwise decided by the parties, COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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