"COP29 is a defining moment for multilateral climate action. We have already made progress during the year," COP29 Lead Negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said at the COP29 World Leaders Climate Action Summit in Baku, AzVision.az reports.

"But there is much to be delivered during COP29 and we have complex issues to address. We have worked intensively over the last days and hours to ensure that we can adopt the agenda on the first day. We have many significant priorities that the world is counting on us to deliver and we could not afford delay. We are delighted to say that we passed this first test and we got to work," Rafiyev emphasized. 

"Yesterday we already secured critical progress on one of our key priorities – Article 6. Last month we hosted a meeting of the supervisory body for Article 6.4 in Baku," COP29 Lead negotiator noted.

He said that at that meeting, standards were proposed for how international carbon crediting projects will work. 

"We built support for these standards at Pre-COP and worked intensively to lay the foundations for early endorsement. Yesterday, Parties reached consensus on the standards for Article 6.4 and a dynamic mechanism to update them. This is a critical step towards concluding Article 6 negotiations. This will be a game-changing tool to direct resources to the developing world and help us save up to 250 billion dollars a year when implementing our climate plans," he stressed. 

Rafiyev expressed gratitude to all Parties who have come to COP29 ready to show flexibility, collaborate, and reach agreement.

"We are seeing an unprecedented level of enthusiasm and determination on Article 6. Fllowing years of stalemate, the breakthroughs in Baku have now begun. But there is much more to deliver. Today and tomorrow we will host the leader-level summit. This will be opened by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, His Excellency, Mr. Ilham Aliyev.

It is a crucial opportunity for global leaders to speak up and step up.The world is waiting to see them and eager to hear from them. Leaders cannot miss this opportunity to send a strong signal of our collective commitment to confront the climate crisis. We also need them to provide clear direction and mandates for their negotiators at COP29. We will address mitigation with a leader-level dialogue hosted by the COP29 Presidency and the International Energy Agency. This follows the calls to action that we have jointly published yesterday and will be an important opportunity to take them forward. And later in the day we will co-host a summit on methane with the United States and China," Rafiyev stated during his speech. 

"We will also host the leaders of international financial institutions. They have a special role to mobilise climate finance and we have engaged with them throughout the year. We are now delighted to welcome them in Baku to make an important contribution. And we will continue to work with them and their shareholders to ensure that they continue the climate finance reform agenda. We will also take historic steps to get the Fund for Loss and Damage up and running. Today, we will sign the hosting, trustee and contributor agreements that will turn the pledges into concrete funding. This will allow support to start flowing in 2025," Rafiyev added. 

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