BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 27. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is participating in COP29 preparations to contribute to its successful outcome, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank Teresa Czerwińska said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
"As EU Climate Bank, EIB is one of the largest providers of climate finance, supporting climate change mitigation projects such as green energy and green transport as well as climate change adaptation projects. Together with the group of multilateral development banks, we are participating in COP29 preparations to contribute to a successful outcome of the climate summit in November 2024. These aspects were discussed by EIB President Nadia Calviño and COP29 President Designate, Minister Mukhtar Babayev in Washington DC in April this year," she said.
Czerwińska noted that EIB is dedicated to promoting flagship initiatives of the Economic Investment Plan such as improving access to finance for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), with special attention to young entrepreneurs, women in business, and rural development.
"Our MSME Outreach Initiative for the Southern Caucasus will help create or sustain approximately 26 500 jobs in the region, fostering private sector-driven growth and social inclusion. As part of the initiative, we recently signed a €10 million loan agreement with Bank Respublika to provide funding for MSMEs at favourable loan conditions, including longer term funding," she added.
The Vice-President pointed out that in addition to financing, EIB Global provides advisory support and technical assistance for project preparation and implementation.
"Currently, we are providing advisory support for safety enhancements at level-crossings along the Baku - Boyuk Kesik Railway Corridor, an important TEN-T link in the Middle Corridor. This support is helping Azerbaijan Railways in analysing and prioritising interventions and in scoping the related design studies. The EIB provides this support under the Facility for Eastern Partnership Investment in Connectivity (EPIC). Funded by the European Union and managed by our advisory programme JASPERS, EPIC offers Eastern partnership countries free advisory support and technical assistance to improve transport connections," said Czerwińska.
Azerbaijan will host the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in November this year. The decision was made at the plenary meeting of COP28 held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Within two weeks, Baku, having become the center of the world, will host about 70,000–80,000 foreign guests.
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, which is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The parties to the convention are 198 countries. Unless the parties have decided otherwise, COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in March 1995 in Germany's Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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