Azerbaijan contributes to safe, just energy transition on global scale: Minister
Azerbaijan, recognized as a reliable partner in the production of fossil fuels for the long years, is currently contributing to the safe and just energy transition in the world, the country’s energy minister said on Monday.
Minister Parviz Shahbazov made the remarks while outlining Azerbaijan’s National Energy Strategy ahead of COP29 at the Ministerial Session within the Global Energy Transition (GET) Congress in Milan, Italy, the Energy Ministry told News.Az.
The minister stressed that the socio-economic development strategy of Azerbaijan and the priorities of its national energy policy aimed at maximizing “green growth” are aligned with the goals of the COP process.
“Our country – a reliable partner in the production of fossil fuels for the long years, now contributes to the safe and just energy transition in the world. Our plans for this year to lay the foundations of 1300 MW of solar and wind power plants and to auction 100 MW of wind energy projects are being implemented successfully,” he said.
Minister Shahbazov stated that with such progress, the Azerbaijani government is going to exceed its target of 30% share of renewables in installed capacity by 2030.
“The construction and integration of 2 GW of solar-wind power plants with more than 2 billion USD investment will increase the share of renewable energy in installed capacity to 33% by 2027,” he said.
The minister also recalled that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev declared the country’s Garabagh, East Zangezur, and Nakhchivan regions as green energy zones.
“Their development as net-zero areas, creation of the Caspian-Black Sea-Europe and the Azerbaijan-Türkiye-Europe energy corridors for export at the initial stage of more than 5 GW of green electricity and green gases from Azerbaijan, the establishment of Azerbaijan-Central Asia-Europe green energy corridor for the transmission of energy from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan put our country in the forefront of the region in terms of decarbonization and climate action,” he said.
“Exemplary initiatives, such as the Green Energy Zones and Corridors, not only guide the Action Agenda of COP29 today but are also more likely to become the COP’s legacy. Given that finance is the most important topic in the negotiations track, we believe that this platform will accelerate the tripling of renewable energy, the doubling of energy efficiency and the achievement of secure energy transition. In this respect, there is a need for new initiatives and targets of increasing investments greatly, to ensure the strengthening of electric grids, scaling up energy storage facilities, and the increase of hydrogen production and energy efficiency in relevant directions, including through HVDC infrastructure. Azerbaijan will exert all efforts to advance the global climate agenda, including just and equitable energy transition and to conclude COP29 with successful results by establishing a sincere and result-oriented dialogue with all parties,” Minister Shahbazov added.
He also spoke about the tripartite mechanism consisting of Azerbaijan, the UAE and Brazil, Agreeing on a new collective quantitative target for climate finance for the period after 2025, mutual trust for the effectiveness of multilateral dialogue on climate action, ensuring a fair distribution of responsibility and financial resources.
