BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 20. Azerbaijan plans to increase the number of transit container block trains through the Middle Corridor to 600 in 2025, the country's Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev said at the COP29 High-Level Ministerial Roundtable on Sustainable and Digital Middle Corridor and Beyond today, TurkicWorld reports.
"In recent years, Azerbaijan has shown steady growth in overall transit volume, which reached 13.4 million tons in 2023, of which 4.3 million tons were transported through the Middle Corridor. Since the beginning of 2024, we have been facilitating the movement of block trains from China through the Middle Corridor.
By the end of this year, over 300 block trains are expected to pass through our territory, with the average transit time being 10 days to Azerbaijani ports and 12 days to ports in Georgia. Next year, we plan to increase the number of block trains to 600, and in the future, our goal is to reach 1,000 block trains," the minister 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.
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.
