Azerbaijan Extends Invitation to Armenia for 2024 UN Climate Change Conference

Authorities in Azerbaijan have formally invited Armenia to attend the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) scheduled for November.

Last week, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, announced that the country had extended the invitation to Armenia. 

“I’m saying … this for the first time to international media,” Mr Hajiyev said at the 2nd Shusha Global Media Forum, according to a report by The National. “The [Cop29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev] … has sent a letter of invitation to the minister of foreign affairs of Armenia. We have sent a formal invitation.”

Despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, Hajiyev emphasized that the invitation showcases Azerbaijan’s goodwill and inclusive approach.

“Now it is the time of the government of Armenia to decide,” he concluded.

Azerbaijan was confirmed as the host of COP29 during the COP28 plenary session on December 11, 2023. This decision followed collective support from Eastern European countries, including Armenia.

Baku has reiterated its commitment to the 2015 Paris Agreement, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent by 2030 and further to 40 percent by 2050. Azerbaijan signed the Paris Agreement in April 2016, committing to its legally binding framework on climate change.

The COP29 Presidency’s strategy focuses on two main pillars: “enhancing ambition” and “enabling action.” The first pillar emphasizes ambitious national plans and transparency, while the second highlights the importance of finance to transform ambition into concrete actions, reduce emissions, adapt to climate change, and address loss and damage.

In support of these goals, Azerbaijan recently announced the launch of a $1 billion Climate Finance Action Fund (CFAF). The fund will be capitalized by contributions from fossil fuel-producing countries and companies, with Azerbaijan as a founding contributor. Half of the capital will be allocated to climate projects in developing countries, promoting clean energy technologies, energy efficiency, and the climate resilience of vulnerable populations.

The COP29 Presidency also introduced the “COP truce appeal,” aiming to promote peace, dialogue, and reconciliation globally.

Beyond climate discussions, COP29 presents an opportunity to improve relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia if the latter agrees to participate. The post-war period since 2020 has opened new potential for ending decades-long adversity between the two nations. In 2022, Azerbaijan proposed five basic principles as the foundation for normalization, which Hikmet Hajiyev described as an interim measure to ensure neighborly relations between the countries. He believes that it can be signed before Azerbaijan holds COP29 climate summit in November.

In a recent address in Shusha, the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed on 80 to 90 percent of the peace treaty’s text. However, significant challenges, including issues related to Armenia’s Constitution, remain unresolved.

“The Armenian Constitution has references to the Declaration of Independence, which clearly poses a territorial threat to Azerbaijan, because it deals with the unification of so-called Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. So, until this paragraph is there, a peace agreement is not possible,” President Aliyev stated.

“With this paragraph in their constitution, it is not possible because a constitution is higher than any other document, including an international treaty,” he added.

In June, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that a peace treaty with Azerbaijan was nearing completion but stressed that Armenia would not agree to Azerbaijan’s demands to change its constitution. On July 5, Constitution Day in Armenia, Pashinyan highlighted the need for a new constitution “which the people will consider to be what they created, what they accepted, and what reflects their idea of the state they created and the relations between people and citizens in that state.”  

Meanwhile, President Aliyev identified Armenia’s reluctance to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group as another obstacle to peace. 

“Armenia should respond positively to our proposal for a joint application by Armenia and Azerbaijan to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group. Because the Minsk Group has been dysfunctional for many months, and maybe already a couple of years. There is no chance for the Minsk Group to become functional again,” the president of Azerbaijan said.