By Vugar Bayramov Member of the Parliament of Azerbaijan.
The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has started its work in Baku. On the whole, the adoption of the decision to hold the COP29 in Azerbaijan once again confirmed that the activities of the country in this field were highly appreciated by international and global organizations, including the UN. Azerbaijan is one of the countries that invests the most in the development of green energy in the region. In recent years, the amount of investments in this field has exceeded 1 billion US dollars. COP29 is very important in a number of directions – Azerbaijan’s economy, but also in terms of presenting Azerbaijan’s activities in the field of green energy. Azerbaijan cooperates with a number of leading companies in the field of green energy, including international institutions, and on the other hand, our country has clear goals regarding the share of green energy in consumption. Intensive steps are being taken towards the realization of these goals. At the same time, Azerbaijan also intends to export its green energy to Europe through Georgia and the Black Sea. This indicates that after 2026, Azerbaijan will have a special share in meeting the European Union’s demand for green energy. Very fast work is being done in this direction as well. On the one hand, such events serve to support and develop the tourism-service sector, and on the other hand, they create an opportunity to become more familiar with the economic potential of the country. As for the economic dividends of the organization of COP29 in Baku, the COP is important in terms of attracting investments in addition to increasing the profitability of the tourism and service sector, because it will give an opportunity to present the potential of Azerbaijan’s economy, as well as unequivocally new investments for our country, and especially will also be efficient in terms of attracting foreign investments. Considering that Mr. President, when defining the new goals of the new era, he mentioned the attraction of foreign investments as one of the main directions. It is especially important to attract foreign investments to the non-oil sector. COP will bring economic advantages and dividends for Azerbaijan. It should be noted that the economic potential of renewable energy on land is 27 GW, including 3 GW for wind energy, 23 GW for solar energy, and the combined potential of bioenergy, geothermal and small rivers is estimated at 1 GW.