ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday underlined the need for global efforts to address the challenge of climate change by adopting environment-friendly technology, promoting afforestation, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Talking to Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources and COP29 president-designate, President Zardari highlighted that global warming and climate change were affecting the glaciers and causing water scarcity.

Mr Zardari said that tackling these challenges required global support to mitigate their adverse impacts.

Azerbaijan will host the 29th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku in November. Mr Babayev, along with a delegation, called on Mr Zardari and invited him to the conference.

Welcoming the minister, President Zardari congratulated Azerbaijan on winning the bid to host COP29 and hoped that the global conference would result in setting the New Collective Quantified Goal on Finance that would help developing countries fulfil their climate finance needs.

He highlighted that Pakistan had planted mangrove forests over hundreds of thousands of hectares that would help protect the environment, besides earning carbon credits for Pakistan.

President Zardari said that Pakistan highly valued its relations with Azerbaijan and wanted to expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of common interest. He called for promoting more interactions, bilateral exchanges and people-to-people contacts to further cement relations between the two brotherly countries.

Mr Babayev also underlined the need to enhance bilateral cooperation, particularly in tourism and culture. He also delivered the invitation to President Zardari to participate in COP29 in Baku in November 2024.