BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 15. Peace is Azerbaijan's top priority, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said, TurkicWorld reports.
He made the statement at the "High-level Panel on Climate and Peace: Enabling joint action to leave no one behind" organized by the Joint Initiative established within the framework of Azerbaijan's chairmanship at COP29 - Azerbaijan, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Uganda, UAE, UK - and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Emphasizing that climate change-induced natural disasters act as a catalyst for conflicts that lead to deepening instability, the Minister noted that the devastating effects of conflict and its impact on infrastructure, land degradation, and biodiversity will exacerbate the climate crisis and damage peace, stability, and development.
Jeyhun Bayramov added that 355 million households and about 1.3 billion people have been exposed to climate threats until 2021. More than 500 million people live in conflict or potentially conflict regions. In response to the growing voice of the most vulnerable, the COP29 Chairmanship has been leading international efforts over the past few months to strengthen joint action on the climate-peace nexus.
The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) opened on November 11. COP29, which is being held at the Baku Olympic Stadium, will continue until November 22. 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 key expectation from COP29 is to agree on a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance.
A total of 14 initiatives have been put forward by the COP29 Chairmanship.
