Lukashenko arrives at World Climate Summit 2024 in Baku

The Belarusian head of state was greeted at the entrance by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The event is held under the auspices of the United Nations. The global forum will be attended by tens of thousands of delegates, including many heads of state and government.

In his speech, Aleksandr Lukashenko will outline Belarus’ position on climate change and measures to be taken by the international community to address the challenges arising in this area.

The president will also hold a number of meetings and negotiations with foreign counterparts on the sidelines of the summit.

The UN Climate Change Conference, or the Climate Summit, has been held annually since 1995 and brings together the countries that are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The previous summit was held at the end of last year in Dubai, the UAE with the participation of delegations from more than 150 countries.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and entered into force in 1994.

Belarus signed the Convention on 11 June 1992, ratified it on 11 May 2000 and became a full party to it on 9 August 2000. In addition to that, our country is a party to the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement that were adopted in the follow-up to the Convention.

The goal of the UNFCCC is to prevent dangerous human impact on the planet's climate system. By now, the Convention has been ratified by 197 states.

The Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC is the Convention's highest authority. The host country of the COP normally rotates among the five United Nations regional groups. Meetings might also be held at the headquarters of the secretariat in Bonn, Germany.

The 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) is being held in Baku on 11-22 November 2024. Azerbaijan, as the COP29 host, put forward 14 initiatives covering topics such as the link between climate action and sustainable development goals, green energy zones and corridors, energy storage, harmony for climate resilience, agriculture, clean hydrogen, methane reduction from organic waste, green digital action, and more. Additionally, one of the initiatives includes the establishment of the Climate Finance Action Fund.