Shamakhi hosts opening ceremony of COP29 Climate Change Summer Camp

Azerbaijan’s city of Shamakhi hosted the opening ceremony of the COP29 Climate Change Summer Camp on August 25.

“Currently, we focus on providing and promoting green education programs in schools and universities to better deliver climate concepts and priorities to the younger generation, said Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President and Representative of the President of Azerbaijan on Climate Issues, in his opening remarks.

“I think for all of us, especially in the last years, most of our activities with young generation, with NGOs, with society represented, with youth organizations, we are trying to organize here in Shamakhi, because it's not so far from Baku. It's only 120km. At the same time, it has beautiful nature, beautiful infrastructure, and at the same time, very huge hospitality from the local authorities, who also provided us with necessary facilities,” Babayev added.

“I think we will always remember Shamakhi as a very important place in our program for the next years. It's a very good chance also to have some exchange of the ideas and opinions regarding climate discussions, climate education.

Because it is so important to all the world now to demonstrate how we can develop this, all this years for all these agendas for the future generation,” the COP29 President noted.

“We have a very successful program together with the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan and other international organizations to promote and provide better delivery of the climate ideas, climate concepts, climate priorities to the young generation. I would like to congratulate Leyla Hasanova, Chairperson of Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organization (NAMYO) and Youth Climate Champion for COP29. NAMYO already produced very good results, with all your activities and your team, bringing together 121 countries.”

“Nigar Arpadarai, Member of the Parliament of Azerbaijan, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29, organized huge work all these years, especially the last two years together with us, to invite as much as possible society representatives, NGOs, private sector, state and non-government organizations to work together to build a good network for very open and honest discussions, to have the solutions, to prepare and implement the programs.

16,000 volunteers were involved in the COP29 events. Then, in the whole process, more than 4,000 participants, volunteers participated. And we have very good feedback, successful work of this young group people, the youth, and not only youth. The youngest was 16 years old, and the oldest, 70. I think it is a very good example of how the young generation, they have the intention to be more involved in these social programs and to be more active, to demonstrate their capacities, to demonstrate their wish to be part of this important process.

And I think that Shamakhi today is also the platform to demonstrate the results of your work, your activities, how we can do it more efficiently.

Azerbaijan and COP29, and our team, as of today, we are a chair in the climate agenda, in these climate discussions, until handover in Brazil this year, in November this year. Azerbaijan will continue this leadership in the climate discussions,” the COP29 President emphasized.

“It is great to see that our young people, our educators, and the young spirit is joining this road by having this youth camp in Shamakhi. So it is a great legacy of our COP29,” said Nigar Arpadarai, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29 Azerbaijan.

“It was great to see parties and non-party stakeholders coming together, understanding the risks that we are facing with climate change, and agreeing on climate finance. But it was also great to see so many non-state actors, private sector, civil society, academia, cities, and all the others coming together and supporting parties, supporting governments in this effort. It's not an easy task. Climate change is the greatest risk that we have and we need to face it all together.

But it was also great to see our young people joining and I would like to really thank Leyla Hasanova, Youth Climate Champion for COP29, for the efforts, for the leadership that she has shown because the whole role of youth champion has been here for two years, I guess, as I know, Leyla. Moreover, we have seen this power of young people coming to COP29, demanding their rights, demanding the activity to an action on climate change, that's what we want to see. We want to see young people more engaged,” the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29 Azerbaijan mentioned.

“The Climate Change Summer Camp is not just a program – it is a dream that began last year during my journey as the Youth Champion for COP29. When we launched this camp for the very first time last year, we welcomed 75 young educators from 35 countries, and I still can remember the energy and the commitment that each of them brought. It was a clear reminder that climate action starts with education – with giving young people proper tools and the knowledge to shape a better world. This year, I am thrilled that the legacy continues. We are joined by 46 inspiring participants, representing 20 countries, including 10 young educators from the regions of Azerbaijan,” Leyla Hasanova, Youth Climate Champion for COP29 emphasized.

Other speakers at the event included Tahir Mamamdov, Head of the Shamakhi District Executive Authority, Adila Aliyeva, Head of Projects and Volunteering Department at the Regional Development Public Union of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

Running until August 29, the event aims is to empower pre-service and in-service early career educators with knowledge and pedagogical skills to effectively teach climate change, connect global climate discourse with local action through education, promote peer learning, intercultural collaboration, and global networking among educators, contribute to the goals of the Greening Education Partnership and support the development of green schools, and inspire teachers to initiate school and community-based climate projects after the camp.

The main partners of the event are the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Regional Development Public Union (RIIB).