BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 19. The UK welcomes the COP29 Presidency's Baku Harmoniya initiative, the country's Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Mary Creagh said at the COP29 event themed "COP to COP Agrifood Legacies: A Key to Achieving Global Climate Goals" today, Trend reports.
"We must invest in ensuring water security as a critical prerequisite for creating healthy and sustainable food systems. However, we also need to carry out policy reforms and reorient subsidies in a way that benefits people, the climate, and economies.
Every year, governments allocate billions of dollars to support agriculture and the food sector, but we have compelling evidence that existing policies often create undesirable incentives that harm the environment and may even undermine food and nutrition security, economic growth, and livelihoods.
I look forward to collaborating to fulfill the commitments made under the UAE Declaration, including cooperation with Brazil, which we hope will lead the agenda on agriculture and climate change during its presidency at COP30.
Finally, I welcome the Baku Harmoniya initiative of the COP29 presidency, aimed at aligning our ambitions and ensuring their collective greater impact," the MP added.
To note, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which will run until November 22, opened at the Baku Olympic Stadium on November 11. It is the largest event organized by Azerbaijan to date, and the first time in the region that it is being held in Azerbaijan.
Within COP29, the highest level event - the summit of world leaders on climate action - was held on November 12–13.
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.
In addition to being a top priority that creates the conditions for action, creating climate finance will also help fulfill the 1.5°C pledge by bringing everyone together.
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” 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 first COP event was held in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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