The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) are to establish a channel for dialogue and information sharing to facilitate the informed participation and positioning of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) agriculture at COP29, due to be held in November in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
Brasilia, May 15, 2024 (IICA). The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) are to establish a channel for dialogue and information sharing to facilitate the informed participation and positioning of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) agriculture at COP29, due to be held in November in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
The decision was agreed at a meeting in Brasilia between the Azeri ambassador to Brazil, Rashad Novruz, and the Special Advisor to the General Directorate and the Director of Technical Cooperation of IICA, Jorge Werthein and Muhammad Ibrahim, respectively. Acting on behalf of Director General Manuel Otero, the Institute officials informed the representative of the Government of Azerbaijan of the inter-American agency’s initiatives designed to boost the presence of the agriculture sector in the world’s most important forum for negotiations on climate issues.
At the meeting, Ibrahim and Werthein provided Ambassador Novruz with details of IICA’s work at COP27 (Sharm El Sheik, Egypt) and COP28 (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), where the agency specializing in agricultural and rural development and its 34 Member States and public and private sector partners set up a pavilion called The Home of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas.
The COP (Conference of the Parties) is the annual summit held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which brings together 196 countries plus the European Union to evaluate the progress made in tackling climate change, and establish commitments designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
At the last two COPs, the Home of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas pavilion was used to host high-level political and technical discussions on the role of the region’s agriculture in mitigation and adaptation efforts aimed at combating global warming.
It is vital that the agrifood sector of the Americas be represented with a pavilion in the global forums where environmental negotiations take placeincluding the COPsbecause it is particularly vulnerable to climate change and is also a strategic guarantor of food security and the livelihoods of millions of people on the planet. Ministers and secretaries of agriculture from the Americas played an active part in the presentations and debates held in the pavilion.
The collaboration between IICA and the Azeri government aimed at contributing to the informed participation of LAC ministries of agriculture and the region’s agricultural organizations in COP29 will be implemented gradually, beginning with virtual meetings between the agricultural authorities of Azerbaijan and Latin America and the Caribbean.
COP29 will be held in Baku from November 11 to 24, 2024.
IICA’s decision to actively participate in global climate negotiation forums was influenced by the fact that producers and the public agricultural sector are in complete agreement as to the need to coordinate the efforts to tackle the climate crisis with those aimed at reducing food insecurity levels.
Agriculture is also the only sector that, as well as reducing its emissions, can make a strategic contribution to climate change mitigation, as it is a net carbon sink. It is also of vital importance for adaptation efforts and increased resilience to extreme weather events.
The pavilion provides a unique means of showcasing the progress made in increasing sustainability and promoting regenerative agriculture, which applies the One Health approach, in a region that is key for global food security and environmental conservation. IICA therefore intends to install the pavilion again this year in Baku.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
