BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 13. A declaration on water resources will be adopted for climate action within the COP29 conference, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said during discussions themed "The negative impact of climate change on decreasing water basins" within COP29 in Baku today, TurkicWorld reports.
According to him, the declaration calls on stakeholders to adopt integrated approaches to address the causes and impacts of climate change on water resources, water basins, water-related biodiversity, and aquatic ecosystems, and also urges the inclusion of water-related impacts in national climate policies and the coordination of adaptation measures, including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
Babayev, referring to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, addressed the negative impacts of climate change on biodiversity and soil degradation.
He highlighted that these impacts are interconnected and addressed the harmful effects of climate change on ecosystems and water basins around the world, including the Caspian Sea.
Claiming that issues related to water basins are a common theme, the COP29 president added that collective challenges require a unified solution.
The United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Water, Retno Marsudi, highly praised Azerbaijan's leadership in identifying water resources as one of the key priorities of COP29 and welcomed the establishment of the Baku Dialogue on broader climate change issues.
She noted that water-related problems caused by climate change pose a threat to the livelihoods of people and future generations. The reduction of water in many basins, particularly in rivers, is simultaneously contributing to the issue of hunger.
It was emphasized that climate change is also causing significant damage to water sources and infrastructure. Last year alone, 32 million people were affected by floods and landslides, and 680 million people living in low-lying coastal areas faced the threat of rising sea levels. Therefore, the water factor must be integrated into discussions and actions related to climate change.
To note, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) started in Baku on November 11. 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 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 the parties decide otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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.
