BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 30. The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is looking at contributing to long-term goal of COP29 to be held in Azerbaijan, said Nazeem Noordali, Chief Operating Officer of Trade Solutions Complex at ITFC, in an exclusive interview with Trend.
"We're very pleased to see COP29 being held in countries like Azerbaijan, because we have seen them being held all the time in major economies, only recently in UAE. So, COP is moving away from G20 countries. It's a very important milestone to connect COP with Central Asia and Azerbaijan is a good gateway," he said.
Noordali noted that the ITFC is participating in the COP as part of the IDB Group.
"COP is about looking at how to tackle climate change challenges that everybody is facing in agriculture, water resources, energy. ITFC’s addressing climate change is an integral part of the sustainability goal. ITFC is involved in sustainability initiatives in many of our countries, be it in Africa, or in Asia, or in the Gulf region. We started a few programs, and sustainability is part of the TCCA+ program, which involves Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan. ITFC is also working under the clean cooking initiative in Kenya. We are looking at contributing to the long-term goal of COP29, which is sustainability and green transition, including, therefore, reducing carbon footprint," said the chief operating officer.
He pointed out that ITFC looks at COP as a long-term vision that it has.
"Because we're looking at scaling up green finance initiatives and try to ensure that trade finance aligns with environmental sustainability and climate resilience. We are here to promote, for example, sustainable agriculture, any initiatives that will reduce carbon emissions and foster clean energy transition. For example, in the financing space, we will be very happy to provide a line where the bank will be having customers focused on organic farming, which is more sustainable. And this is something we can see more in Central Asia," said Noordali.
He noted that ITFC will prefer financing of any other activities aimed at reducing carbon or transition to a green or renewable energy.
"That's what we call green financing initiative. This is how we contribute to reducing carbon footprint. And then on the trade and municipal side, our activities there will be around resilience and sustainability," said the chief operating officer.
The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Azerbaijan in November this year. 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 Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate system. The acronym COP stands for Conference of Parties, which 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 determined 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.