Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The COP29 Presidency on November 15 launched the Baku Call on Climate Action for Peace, Relief, and Recovery (BCCAP), a milestone initiative aimed at addressing the urgent nexus of climate change, conflict, and humanitarian needs, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP29.
This initiative responds to the growing recognition that the adverse effects of climate change, such as water scarcity, food insecurity, land degradation and human displacement, can act as catalysts for conflict and instability, especially in the most climate-vulnerable regions.
The initiative was launched by Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov at the high-level panel, “Climate and Peace: Enabling Joint Action to Leave No One Behind”, to inaugurate the COP29 Peace, Relief, and Recovery Day.
The event brought together ministers and governmental envoys from a wide range of countries across both the Global North and South to develop a strategy for preventing conflict-induced conflicts and scaling up support for climate and conflict-vulnerable nations with high humanitarian needs.
Through multiple rounds of consultations over the past six months, the COP29 Presidency has developed, in collaboration with partner co-lead countries of Egypt, Italy, Germany, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK, which has already endorsed the Baku Call, the concrete, solution-oriented responses that build upon climate and peace initiatives championed by previous COP Presidencies.
It has established the Baku Climate and Peace Action Hub as a coordination platform to deliver on pledges to mitigate challenges on peace and climate nexus.