Azerbaijan, the host country of this year's UN Climate Change Conference, has already started negotiations with financial institutions, companies and countries on the thorny issue of climate finance, the country's minister for ecology and natural resources said March 14.
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Register NowSpeaking at the Financial Times Climate Capital Live event, Mukhtar Babayev also said his country is considering a possible ratcheting up of its own climate ambitions ahead of COP29, which will take place in Baku in mid-November.
Global leaders are under pressure to build a new global climate finance framework, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance for COP29, which is seen as a key enabler across the entire climate agenda.
Babayev, who was recently appointed as the president-designate of COP29, said his team is looking to hear from different counterparts and stakeholders to make "climate finance workable" and find a "consensus" on these issues.
The scant progress on climate finance over the years has increasingly fueled mistrust between developed and developing parties.
"COP29 will be a pivotal moment for climate finance, as parties will be called on to define a new collective goal for mitigation and adaptation that is expected to address the challenges associated with existing pledges and effectively reflect developing countries' needs to assist with increased ambition," analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights said in a recent note.
Renewables, climate targets
Besides climate finance, the president-designate said issues related to "water, land degradation, food security, agriculture and others" will be highlighted.
Azerbaijan is also hoping to bridge the divide between the East and the West as well as the Global North and Global South.
Babayev, said the country is focused on growing its renewable energy growth, even as it looks to grow its gas production.
"Green growth is a priority for Azerbaijan for the decades ahead," he said, adding that a lot of projects particularly focused on solar power are planned in the Caspian region.
However, Azerbaijan does not currently have a net zero target. In October 2023, the country revised its Nationally Determined Contributions, committing to a 40% reduction in emissions by 2050, compared with 1990 levels.
This is conditional on international support provided through financing, technology transfer and capacity building, according to its submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Copenhagen talks
On March 21-22, several climate ministers will convene in Denmark for the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial meeting to forge a consensus ahead of the Baku climate summit.
Speaking at the same event, Denmark's climate minister Dan Jorgensen said next week's meeting will focus on deciding an agenda for COP29 with climate finance likely to dominate discussions.
He also said ministers will evaluate what was achieved at COP28 in Dubai, where world leaders agreed to transition away from fossil fuels and work toward the phasedown of unabated coal.
Babayev, who was the country's lead negotiator at the recently concluded COP28 climate summit, also has an oil and gas background like his predecessor. Babayev worked at Azerbaijan's state-owned oil and gas company Socar for more than two decades.
Azerbaijan is a sizable oil and gas exporter and a member of the OPEC+ alliance. It produced an average of 480,000 b/d of crude in February, data from the latest Platts OPEC+ survey showed. However, the country is producing well below its OPEC+ quota of 551,000 b/d as declines at mature Caspian fields continue to affect output.
Azerbaijan's total gas production in the first two months of this year was 8.2 Bcm, up 3% year on year, according to ministry data.
Azerbaijan has also emerged as a reliable gas supply partner for the EU as it looks to replace Russian pipeline gas imports. These were sharply curtailed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, pushing European gas prices to record highs.