Now is the time to make climate Loss and Damage Fund operational, says COP29 President-Designate in Tonga

Photo: Mary Lyn Fonua. Retrieved from matangitonga.to

One big priority for the annual UN Climate Change Conference 2024 (COP29) is to make the climate Loss and Damage Fund operational, said HE Mukhtar Babayev, the COP29 President-Designate, who was in Tonga this week to meet Pacific Islands leaders, attending the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting.

“Because in 2022, in Sharm El Sheikh, this fund was created by countries; in 2023 several countries, already, pledged to contribute, but now is the time to make it operational, it is very important for all the countries to find this conclusion, how to operate this fund,” he told Matangi Tonga.

The Republic of Azerbaijan is the host country of COP29 to be held from November 11-22 in Baku, the capital on the Caspian Sea.

“For COP29 the big task to provide all these discussions and in September in Baku we have invited the board members to come and to discuss all these issues. We will try to find the agreement between the parties and to make this fund operational,” he said.