BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 19. Climate change is already at our door, and its consequences are being felt more intensely by communities around the world, leading to the loss of more lives, said Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP29 Lead Negotiator, Trend reports.
Speaking at the session on "Accelerating Adaptation Action at COP29: Progress on Formulating and Implementing National Adaptation Plans," Rafiyev illuminated the landscape of challenges, where the tides of rising seas clash with the tempests of extreme weather, while the parched earth yearns for rain amidst the deluge of floods.
"Adaptation is now part of our reality. The Global Fund stresses that we are falling behind in our adaptation efforts. To continue making progress, we need political will. We must act swiftly, and we all need the attention and support required to accelerate adaptation efforts.
We must ensure global adaptation efforts, including within the EU, to build resilience against climate change. National adaptation plans are essential to advancing both our adaptation and broader climate agenda," he said.
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. The event is the largest organized by Azerbaijan to date and is the first time the region has hosted the event in Azerbaijan.
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 whopping 198 countries have thrown their hats in the ring as parties to the Convention. Unless the parties decide to change the game plan, COP takes place once a year. The inaugural COP event took place in March 1995 in the bustling city of Berlin, Germany, with its secretariat nestled in Bonn.
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