UN Ocean Conference Hails Azerbaijan’s Efforts to Protect Marine Environment

“A significant meeting on climate change, closely linked to the health of the oceans, was successfully held in Baku last year under the leadership of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The COP29 international conference marked a major milestone,” said Azerbaijani Ambassador to France Leyla Abdullayeva during her speech at the UN Ocean Conference held within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14) framework.

“There are many urgent and critical reasons to protect the oceans,” ambassador Abdullayeva added. “Oceans are vast reservoirs of biodiversity, vital for sustainable fisheries, and essential to the food security of billions of people,” the diplomat mentioned, The Caspian Post reports, citing local media.

Ambassador Abdullayeva emphasized that it was at Azerbaijan’s initiative that the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action was launched during COP29 to promote cooperation on shared water bodies, including inland seas such as the Caspian. She also noted that Azerbaijan’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan is currently being updated, with clearly defined goals, targets, and actions aimed at preserving and enhancing the country’s rich biodiversity-aligning with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The ambassador stressed the importance of a strong multilateral process and collective commitments to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030. She concluded by noting that despite initial divisions, the COP29 conference hosted by Baku proved that courageous and confident collective action is not only possible but effective.