Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has delivered a speech ‘Strengthening Sustainability and Responses to Cataclysms’ at the 11^th Summit of the Speakers of Parliaments of the Group of Twenty (G20) as part of her working visit to the Republic of South Africa.

Having mentioned in her speech the mounting acuteness of climate change world-wide today and that its consequences are increasingly palpable with each passing day, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis emphasised that no country is insured against climate change consequences. She went further to say that natural cataclysms would impact every country and every region. Therefore, this matter has transformed to a topic of global importance, once that calls for urgent actions at all levels. The Speaker added that this, in turn, presupposes definition of international frameworks and obligations, their conversion to specific national actions and plans and ensuring global collaboration and collective support for their implementation.

Turning in her speech to the role of parliaments in the adoption of necessary responses to cataclysms and climatic impacts, the Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan remarked that legislative processes furthered in such frameworks should be proactive rather than reactive, thus reflecting adaptation to climate change and mitigation of risks as an overarching approach. She added that this would also serve the cause of fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals.

As Sahiba Gafarova said, the Milli Majlis has passed numerous environmental, soil, water, forests and agriculture protection, civil defence and other laws that provide a foundation for preparations against adverse climate change consequences. What else was said was that Azerbaijan presented the National Plan of Adaptation, which is in concordance with the Global Goal of Adaption, the Sustainable Development Goals and the document of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Besides, the Plan envisages steps to be taken in line with changing conditions, and a continued concretisation and perfection of adaptive responses in a number of legislative documents.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova mentioned Azerbaijan’s having held COP29 – one of the most successful COPs – under the guidance of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in November last year, saying that our country had been able to build stronger bridges between the Global South and the Global North for the sake of achieving the common goals and, particularly, to make certain that the voices of developing countries were heard. She also informed the assembly of the important outcomes of СОР29, which the UN called the Baku Climate Unity Pact officially, that is, such tremendous elements as the adoption of the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (known as the Baku Finance Goal), making fully functional Article 6 of the Paris Agreement that concerns international hydrocarbon markets, the decision made to ensure the full operation of the Loss and Damage Fund, the adoption of the Baku Adaptation Roadmap and the inception of the Baku High-Level Dialogue on Adaptation.

Furthermore, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova let the assembled know that the Milli Majlis and the Inter-Parliamentary Union had combined to hold on the COP29 margins the Parliamentary Meeting, which had aimed to unite parliamentary efforts to counter climate change.

Concluding her address, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis remarked that with the successful completion of COP29 Azerbaijan demonstrated once more the irreplaceability of solidarity, compromises and joint action in the face of common challenges for the achievement of desired results.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis