Brazil assumes COP chair from Azerbaijan

The 30th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) was held in Belem, Brazil, with the Leaders Summit Session taking place on November 6-7, Report informs with reference to the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan was represented at the Leaders Summit by a delegation headed by Speaker of the National Assembly Sahiba Gafarova. The speaker made a statement on behalf of Azerbaijan and held bilateral meetings with leaders from several countries.

On the official opening day of COP30, the COP presidency was transferred from Azerbaijan to Brazil. The President of COP29, Azerbaijan's Climate Representative Mukhtar Babayev, spoke at the opening session of COP30, providing information about the historic results achieved at COP29 held in Baku last year, as well as the activities carried out during Azerbaijan's presidency of COP. Muktar Babayev also participated and spoke at several events organized within the framework of COP30 in his capacity as COP29 President, and held bilateral meetings with other delegation heads.

The team of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) also participated in both segments of COP30. During the conference, the MFA delegation was involved in negotiations on decisions planned for adoption at the conclusion of the Conference, and Azerbaijan was entrusted with conducting negotiations and coordinating agreements on two important decisions.

Under the mandate given by COP30 President André de Lago to Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiyev and Brazil's Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Lyrio to conduct negotiations between Türkiye and Australia, the candidate countries to host COP31, a decision was made after 12 days of intensive negotiations to award the hosting of COP31 to Türkiye.

In addition, within the framework of COP30, the COP President gave a mandate to representatives from Azerbaijan and Norway to lead the process of coordinating documents related to the Global Stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement on his behalf and to conduct negotiations between states. These negotiations were led by Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiyev from Azerbaijan and Climate and Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen from Norway.

As a result of discussions with all negotiating groups, Azerbaijan and Norway submitted their recommendations on possible draft decisions to the Brazilian Presidency of COP31, and these discussions contributed to the adoption of decisions on relevant documents.

The MFA team also held five events on peace and migration, water, healthcare, cities, and climate transparency initiatives put forward under the COP29 Presidential Action Agenda. Additionally, the Azerbaijani delegation co-organized several events related to renewable energy, hydrogen, and agricultural initiatives.

Furthermore, in accordance with the Baku Finance Target decision adopted at COP29, Azerbaijan and Brazil prepared and presented the Road Map from Baku to Belem on increasing global climate finance to $1.3 trillion within the framework of COP30.