Tue, 03/12/2024 - 07:38
“Meet the Caspian Sea”: Side Event Highlights Caspian Sea Resilience at COP29
Climate change, pollution, and unsustainable exploitation threaten Caspian Sea delicate balance. Against this backdrop, COP29 featured an interactive side event titled “Meet the Caspian Sea: Enhancing Coastal Resilience and Biodiversity Protection through the Tehran Convention under Climate Change Impacts”, held on November 19 at the Azerbaijan Pavilion.
Organized by the interim Secretariat of the Tehran Convention and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, the event offered an engaging platform to explore the environmental and climate challenges facing the Caspian region.
“Meet the Caspian Sea” event embraced interactivity to deepen participants' understanding of the region’s environmental challenges and solutions.
Participants from the Caspian littoral states — Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan — joined international stakeholders to discuss urgent topics, including coastal resilience, pollution control, and biodiversity conservation. This unique format underscored the critical role of regional cooperation, embodied by the Tehran Convention — the first legally binding framework for protecting the Caspian environment.
Speakers also highlighted synergies between the Convention and global climate goals, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and other SDGs.
The event emphasized the Tehran Convention's potential as a model for regional collaboration in a time of global environmental crises. Mahir Aliyev, Coordinator of the Tehran Convention, noted: “The Caspian Sea is more than a regional asset; it is a shared global heritage. Protecting it requires not only local action but also global solidarity”.
The side event closed with a powerful message: while the Caspian Sea faces unprecedented threats, there is also unprecedented opportunity to strengthen collaboration, enhance resilience, and protect biodiversity for generations to come.
