Azernews.Az

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Renewable energy sources, including hydropower resources, account for 18 percent of Azerbaijan’s total energy consumption, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev said on November 27 during an international conference on the role of the Paris Agreement on climate and environmental change held in Baku.

Babayev said that this figure will reach 30 percent by 2030.

“In the coming years, important steps will be taken to develop renewable and alternative energy, and a number of projects will be implemented in this direction. The development of this area will also help reduce environmental impact,” he said.

Speaking at the conference, President of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev spoke about measures taken by the company to eliminate environmental risks created by oil production.

“Aiming to solve environmental problems in recent years, SOCAR has implemented complex measures program and has reached the level of 100 percent utilization of wastewater, ahead of many companies,” Abdullayev underlined.

“Oil and gas producers are obliged to make important commitments to prevent environmental pollution in the manufacturing sector,” Abdullayev went on saying.

Additionally, SOCAR president informed the participants of the conference about appropriate monitoring, conducting at its facilities in order to control the total amount of polluting gas emissions.

Furthermore, Abdullayev said that coefficient of fuel flaring has dropped in Azerbaijan.

“The coefficient of fuel flaring adopted in world practice, is 5 percent, while in 2018 in Azerbaijan this ratio amounted to only 1 percent. However this year this figure has dropped to 0.9 percent.”

He also added that SOCAR achieved significant successes in the restoration of lands, which were degraded in the Soviet Union period.

Over 2,000 hectares of territory being on the balance of SOCAR’s enterprises and organizations have been reclaimed, and the greenery has been planted on those lands, Abdullayev said, adding that Baku Olympics Stadium, Baku Higher Oil School Campus, Eco-park and other facilities were built on the reclaimed territories.

The role of the Paris Agreement in climate and environmental change is theme of the conference.

Paris agreement was drafted within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016. The agreement's language was negotiated by representatives of 196 state parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in near Paris and adopted by consensus on December 12, 2015.

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