BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 21. The UK supports the Baku Declaration on Water, the country's Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nature Mary Creagh said at the COP29 High-Level Event "Celebrating Water’s Lifeline for Climate, Nature, and People" today, TurkicWorld reports.
"In 2023, we witnessed the driest year for rivers in the past 30 years. This has serious consequences. Just look at the Rhone or the Danube to understand the scale of the damage it inflicts on food systems, transport, and clean energy production. That’s why, at COP26, the UK organized the first-ever water pavilion at the conference to highlight its importance in this context, and we’re pleased to see that with each subsequent COP, the role of water continues to grow.
This continues today, as we are proud to announce the UK’s support for the COP29 Water Declaration. We fully back this initiative and look forward to seeing this powerful 'river of action' continue its flow through Belem and beyond. This won't be an easy task," she 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.
