BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 24. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is looking forward to playing an important role at the upcoming COP29 in Azerbaijan, said Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF, during a press conference in response to a question from Trend.
"The Fund has been an important partner to Azerbaijan for the preparation of the COP29. Last year and before, the Fund has been extremely involved and has scaled up its support to members on the climate side by providing programs to help countries accelerate their transformation and finance long-term climate priorities. We will be holding several meetings this week with the authorities, and the Fund is looking forward to maintaining its active partnership with the authorities and playing an important role in COP29," he said.
According to Azour, the IMF is also mainstreaming the climate issues in the surveillance and is providing a wealth of knowledge on the priorities, including for the Caucasus and Central Asia region.
"The Fund has recently produced a series of analytical pieces about the importance of adaptation for the region, as well as also how to tackle the issue of mitigation and climate finance. Those are important pieces that will be featured during the COP29," the IMF official added.
The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held this November in Azerbaijan. The decision was made at the plenary meeting of COP28 held in Dubai on December 11 last year.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate system. The abbreviation COP (Conference of Parties) means “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 inaugural COP event took place in March 1995 in the bustling city of Berlin, Germany, with its secretariat nestled in Bonn.