Launch of the EU-funded Twinning Project “Strengthening hydrometeorological and climate services in Azerbaijan”

The project is implemented in cooperation with the National Hydrometeorological Service under the Ministry of Ecology of the Republic of Azerbaijan and partner institutions from Finland, Lithuania, and France as EU Member States Partners. The leading Member State in the project is the Finnish Meteorological Institute cooperating with the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service, the Environmental Projects Management Agency under the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment and the International Office for Water, France. The project started on 1 September 2022 and will run for 24 months. The main goal of the project is to contribute to strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of Azerbaijan, its people and its economic sectors to climate-related hazards and natural disasters and improvement of the service delivery capacity of the National Hydrometeorological Service (NHMS) in line with international standards and best practices to meet national needs.

Over 70 participants, including representatives from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Ambassadors of EU, France and Lithuania, several Azerbaijani private sector companies as well as international development partners attended the event.

The event was opened by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E. Mr. Mukhtar Babayev, Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E. Mr. Peter Michalko and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland on International Trade H.E. Ms. Nina Vaskunlahti.

Mr. Mukhtar Babayev and Mr. Peter Michalko briefed the press.

The issues of environment occupy an important place in a bilateral agreement, which defines the relations between Azerbaijan and the EU, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev said during the opening ceremony of the project on “Strengthening services in the field of hydrometeorology and climate in Azerbaijan” implemented with the support of the EU on October 28.

He noted that the priority issues for Azerbaijan are environmental impact assessment, water resources and waste management, environmental education and training, sustainable forest management, communication of environmental information to the public, improvement of air quality, and conservation of biodiversity.

“Azerbaijan is actively participating in regional projects implemented as part of the Eastern Partnership initiative of the EU. According to information published by the World Meteorological Organization, the number and intensity of natural disasters in the world are growing as a result of rapid climate change. There is no region on the planet that would not face Hurricane Ian that swept over America and the natural disaster that caused devastation in France showed once again that no economy is immune to the climate crisis,” Babayev said.

“This Twinning project is another example of the strong partnership between the European Union and Azerbaijan. Hydrometeorological and climate services are important instruments related to the everyday life of the citizens and to the needs of the economy, and at the same time key for the issue of combating climate change that is of the utmost importance for the EU policy priorities and its external action. In December 2019, European Union leaders agreed to achieve climate neutrality in the European Union by 2050. This means that by this date, we will have drastically reduced our greenhouse gas emissions and find ways of compensating for the unavoidable emissions to reach a net-zero emissions balance. We see this transition to climate neutrality also as an opportunity in terms of economic growth, jobs and technological development. Only together with our partners, we can jointly succeed in the climate transition. I would like to thank the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan for being a key partner of the European Union in the area of environment and prevention of climate change”.

said Mr. Peter Michalko, EU Ambassador.