BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 14. Certification plays a critical role in building investor confidence and ensuring delivery of real results from capital allocated to specific projects, Executive Vice President for the Middle East, Caspian, and Africa at Bureau Veritas Khurram Majeed said during a panel discussion on the topic "COP29 Business, Investment, and Philanthropy Climate Platform" in Baku today, Trend reports.
He emphasized that, according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency, trillions of dollars will be invested by 2030 to achieve carbon neutrality goals. With such a large volume of investment, transparency becomes not just an option but a necessity.
"Bureau Veritas, as a global leader in certification, is often called a trust intermediary, as the company helps ensure transparency, which in turn fosters alignment between governments, businesses, financiers, and other stakeholders. From a business perspective, certification is crucial for companies," he also said.
According to Majeed, the world is facing a huge challenge regarding carbon emissions.
As he explained, the construction industry is responsible for 40 percent of global carbon emissions; however, if a building is certified as environmentally friendly, it not only reduces energy consumption by 20–30 percent but also ensures higher occupancy, higher rental yields, and ultimately, a higher asset value.
"Thus, certification is beginning to have a significant impact on business," he added.
To note, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) started in Baku on November 11. The United Nations 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.
A total of 198 countries are Parties to the Convention. Unless the parties decide otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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.
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