COP31 carries broader political responsibility, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister and COP29 Lead Negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said during his speech at the Fourth Climate Week (CW4) conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Baku and organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, APA reports.
Yalchin Rafiyev said Antalya should not become a place where compromises reached yesterday are renegotiated: “COP31 should pave the way for the implementation of those agreements for the sake of the future. This requires trust between developed and developing countries, between negotiating groups, and between those providing support and those in need of it. Through initiatives such as the Shamakhi meeting, Azerbaijan has sought to create an environment that allows negotiating parties to understand not only each other’s positions but also the political realities behind those positions. We intend to continue our bridge-building role. From Baku to Belém and now to Antalya, there must be continuity of purpose. Presidencies change. Our collective responsibility does not. Therefore, let us use Baku Climate Action Week to reduce differences, build partnerships, and contribute to creating the political conditions for a successful COP31. Azerbaijan will remain an active partner that defends multilateralism, builds bridges and supports Türkiye, Australia and all parties in achieving an ambitious, balanced and genuinely implementation-oriented outcome in Antalya. The world does not need another COP that merely describes the climate problem. The world needs a COP that demonstrates that multilateralism can still solve this problem,” he said.
According to him, the new climate finance target agreed in Baku envisages providing at least $300 billion annually by 2035 and efforts to scale up finance to $1.3 trillion. Finance is a key condition for implementing climate commitments.
“Finance is the key enabler of implementation. Another important factor is transparency,” he said.
Yalchin Rafiyev noted that at COP29, Azerbaijan established the Baku Global Climate Transparency Platform to support developing countries and called on the Parties to submit their second Biennial Transparency Reports on time.
The Foreign Ministry official said Azerbaijan supports the initiative to hold COP31 in Antalya as an “Implementation COP.” According to him, the climate process should move from discussing commitments to their practical implementation.
“There can be no ‘Implementation COP’ without implementation finance,” Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized.
He added that ambition, transparency and finance should form the foundation for implementing climate commitments.
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