BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 19. Climate action can save millions of lives every year, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the 29th High-Level Meeting themed "Pathway to COP29: Sustainable and Resilient Future" taking place in Baku, TurkicWorld reports.
According to him, millions of people suffer from drought and a sharp rise in air temperature.
"The climate crisis is a public health crisis. The scale of climate-related humanitarian emergencies is growing. Climate change contributes to the spread of diseases such as plague and malaria," the WHO chief added.
The primary objective of convening this top-tier gathering is to make sure that all stakeholders are on the same page and pulling in the same direction for the success of COP29 in Azerbaijan's Baku.
Preparations for COP29 in Baku involve tackling existing global challenges and opportunities in climate action from all angles.
This November, Azerbaijan will host COP29. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary meeting held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Baku will become the center of the world and will receive about 70–80,000 foreign guests.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. COP—the Conference of the Parties—is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. There are 198 countries that are parties to the Convention. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Germany's Berlin, with its secretariat in Bonn.
