King Charles III hosted Mukhtar Babayev, the Minister of Ecology of Azerbaijan and the President-designate of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), at Clarence House, the royal residence in Westminster on Friday, July 27, 2024.
The visit was part of a broader engagement with the COP Presidency Troika, a newly established collaborative body comprising leaders from the current, incoming, and future COP presidencies.
The COP Presidency Troika includes Sultan Al Jaber, the President of COP28; Mukhtar Babayev, the President-designate of COP29; and Ana Toni, the Brazilian National Secretary for Climate Change. This triad of leadership represents a significant step in fostering an unprecedented level of cooperation among COP host states.
The primary goal of the COP Presidency Troika is to ensure continuity and build upon the progress made at previous conferences. Their collaborative efforts aim to maintain momentum in global climate negotiations, strengthen the implementation of agreed measures, and create a cohesive bridge between successive COP meetings to drive forward the international climate agenda.
In November 2024, Azerbaijan will host COP29, a decision finalised during the COP28 plenary meeting in Dubai on December 11, 2023. Baku is anticipated to become a major global hub for climate discussions, with preparations to accommodate approximately 70,000 to 80,000 international attendees.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, aimed at addressing human impacts on the climate system. The Conference of the Parties (COP), which consists of 198 member countries, acts as the highest decision-making body for overseeing the implementation of the UNFCCC.
COP meetings are held annually unless otherwise agreed, with the first conference taking place in March 1995 in Berlin. The UNFCCC secretariat is located in Bonn, Germany.
