BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 15. As part of COP29 in Baku, Trend News Agency proudly presents COP for Hope, a special project offering an unparalleled platform to hear from world leaders and trailblazers in politics, economics, science, and ecology, all united by a shared commitment to addressing today’s pressing climate challenges.
Today, we are honored to speak with Gilad Shadmon, Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Regional Cooperation.
In an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of COP29, Shadmon noted that COP29 is going very well and Azerbaijan has organized this event at a high level.
“COP29 will be a seed for continuing working together after the COP. When we will establish communities that will connect together after the COP29, we will remember this COP as a really milestone that made the change, he said.
Shadmon believes that COP29 is a chance to meet and discuss the ways of overcoming the common challenges in partnership.
“The climate crisis is a common challenge. It is not only the problem of Israel or Azerbaijan or Greece or Kazakhstan or other countries in the region. It doesn't mind about borders, communities, culture. When we unite and think together about the solution, it doesn't matter what the solution will be, we are doing it together,” he said.
As for Israel’s commitment to the success of COP29, Shadmon pointed out that Israel is known as a start-up nation.
“We got a lot of innovation centers, and my office, the Regional Cooperation Office, is investing especially in innovation centers. We invest in four different innovation centers in Israel, which collaborate and make connections with other countries. One of them is called C-Innovation in Eilat. The other one is the South Innovation Center in Dimona. The other one called Desert Tech in Beer-Sheva. And the other one is called BILT. We invite Azerbaijan to join this collaboration on innovation in Israel, he said.
Moreover, Shadmon noted that Israel has a special education program with Azerbaijan.
“I hope we will sign a memorandum of understanding at COP29 about the connection of education between two countries. We got a special program that we are planning to do together to educate the method how to teach children the climate challenge,” he said.
Shadmon went on to add that Israel got a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience in many things, and it wants to study Azerbaijan’s experience and knowledge.
“By connecting together this knowledge and the experience, we are creating a good future for all of us, he said.
