Azerbaijan’s demonstrated commitment to enhanced climate reporting and transparency began with its participation in the first round of Mutual Learning Programme implementation in 2023, along with, Uzbekistan, and Japan; and Moldova, Georgia, and Japan. This participation has led to an expanded role as a transparency advocate within its region of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
With Global Environment Facility support Azerbaijan has also implemented capacity building initiatives through its Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus (RECC) focused on enabling activities for the preparation of the third Biennial Update Report (BUR3), First Biennial Transparency Report (BTR1).
The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) is leading these efforts, and in 2024 also worked on developing comprehensive web-based monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems, designed to support national governments in effective monitoring and tracking of the implementation of climate action.
Azerbaijan has subsequently facilitated a dialogue with selected countries which have the operational transparency systems and which can guide on their lessons learned and recommendations for improvement. Transparency systems are critical in tracking mitigation efforts, allowing countries to evaluate their progress toward Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This tracking strengthens accountability and provides valuable insights for adjusting policies and programs as needed.
Additionally Azerbaijan participated in more than a dozen regional trainings on climate reporting and transparency throughout 2024, including covering greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, streamlining climate reporting processes, institutional arrangements for transparency, and adaptation reporting under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). Azerbaijan also received support from CBIT-GSP through multiple quality review checks for the GHG Inventory and Nationally Determined Contributions tracking components of its BTR .
“The comprehensive review of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory estimations across sectors, insightful comments and recommendations, and the one-on-one sessions with sector-specific experts significantly enhanced the quality and accuracy of our report,” said Rauf Hajiyev, Deputy Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources, Republic of Azerbaijan.
Most recently Azerbaijan has continued its reporting and transparency work by co-hosting two side-events on transparency at COP29. The events ‘National Transparency Systems for Tracking Data-Driven Climate Action’ and ‘Best Practices for BTR Development in Eurasia, Asia and the Caucasus’, covered work done in collaboration with the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency- Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP).
