"By 2050, the population of cities will increase by 2.5 billion, and 68% of the global population will live in cities," stated Umayra Tagiyeva, the Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, at the high-level roundtable on "High-Level Roundtable 3: Nature, Health, and Resilience in Cities" during COP29 in Baku, APA reports.
She noted that global warming is accompanied by extreme weather events, which are more frequent and severe in cities: "Rapid urbanization has created additional risks for both nature and human health due to anthropogenic pressure. This has been observed through water and air pollution, loss of biodiversity, and land degradation. Over the past decades, urban populations have become more vulnerable to many global problems, including ecological changes caused by climate change. These negative environmental transformations will affect future generations."
Tagiyeva also emphasized that climate warming and heatwaves pose more health risks to urban populations: "In particular, in large cities, the population is more vulnerable to weather conditions. In recent years, the number of strong winds exceeding 25 m/s in our region has increased 12 times. Heatwaves in Azerbaijan have become more frequent, and in Baku, they have increased 14 times compared to the 1990s."
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