Baku, November 20, AZERTAC

A press conference following the high-level Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change was held as part of COP29 on Wednesday.

During the event, moderated by Katerina Bezgachina, Chief of Communications for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), Anacláudia Rossbach, UN-HABITAT Executive Director congratulated Azerbaijan on the high-level organization of COP29.

She noted that at the third meeting on Urban Planning and Climate Change, ministers, local leaders, development banks and stakeholders elaborated how to join efforts for a better urban life in the future.

Anar Guliyev, Chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture, expressed his gratitude to UN-HABITAT for initiating the ministerial meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change two years ago. He emphasized that Azerbaijan would host the 13th session of the World Urban Forum next year.

Highlighting the challenges caused by inadequate infrastructure, Anacláudia Rossbach, UN-Habitat Executive Director, stated that nearly one million people currently live in informal settlements. "Half of the world’s population lives in cities today, and in more than 20 years, 2.4 billion more people are expected to move to urban areas. Cities must be prepared for this. As a result, cities are being forced to expand their land use and increase the construction and sale of buildings. However, this poses significant threats to the climate, food security, and ecosystems," the executive director warned.

Other speakers at the event included Tomáš Taraba, Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia, Nigar Arpadarai, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29 Azerbaijan, Minna Arve Turku, Mayor of Finnish city of Turku, and Gianpiero Naci, EBRD Director for Sustainable Business and Infrastructure.

The press conference concluded with a Q&A session.