"The COP29 Presidency is very pleased to receive the participants today. We intend to conduct COP29 fairly," said Mukhtar Babayev, the designated president of COP29, at the Preliminary Conference of the Parties on Climate Change of the UN (Pre-Cop29) held in Baku, APA reports.
He said that COP29 Presidency listened to all parties during the year: "During 6 months after COP28, severe weather caused serious damage and inactivity was observed. We think that within the framework of COP29, we will speed up the activities and expand the claims. We appreciate the positive feedback we receive. We must turn intentions into concrete results. We receive different initiatives from different countries. We set new goals at the high-level ministerial meeting. Climate change does not respond to national borders or narrow interests. We must work together. We must put aside political interests. We cannot leave everything to the summit. At the same time, we need to agree on a number of issues in advance."
Mukhtar Babayev pointed out that they want to complete the work on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement: "This will reveal a serious achievement and strengthen the claims regarding the creation of carbon markets. We need to step up our action on climate change and raise funds for the loss and damage recovery fund. We have to consider the different challenges of different countries. We are working on the next contribution document of Azerbaijan. We need to make progress on all topics of conversation. We also need to make progress on non-negotiation issues. The COP29 declaration will also be distributed in the coming days. You saw the intention of President Ilham Aliyev. Azerbaijan has received the support of more than 140 countries. Pre-COP is a very important forum to raise all our concerns. The COP29 Presidency has already appointed liaison officers at the ministerial level. This will allow us to eliminate gaps and achieve evolution. Also we need to increase political representation. Relevant ministries should join COP29. Success or failure at COP29 will be shared, each of us has a role to play. We can hold COP29 together. We can invest together and secure the future," he underlined during his speech.