COP29, Baku’s Challenging Undertaking.

While attending COP29 in Baku, I noted that the slogan “on the map” can refer to much more than sports.

It means you are no longer ordinary, rather that you became better known. Also, you joined the ranks of making a difference.

The “We are on the map” documentary from director Dani Menkin, shows how one man can make a difference; Tal Brody, a basketball player and team captain, presciently called out in 1977, “We are on the map! And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything.”

The movie tells the against-all-odds story of the Israeli Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv basketball team’s 1977 European Championship, and how one team captured the heart of a nation amid domestic turmoil and the global machinations of the Cold War.

To fully understand the call “we are on the map,” one needs to relate to the blowing winds of that time. During the Cold War, the Middle East was a proxy battleground between America and the Soviet Union; Israel was on the opposite side of the USSR, which was aligned with Arab nations. Then, in 1977, worlds collided: the mighty Soviet basketball team, CSKA, was matched up against Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv in the EuroCup Semifinals at a time when the countries had no diplomatic ties.

The final score of the 1976-1977 European Champions Cup, Semifinal Group Stage Round 7: Maccabi Tel Aviv 91; CSKA Moscow 79. The final game was held at the Pionir Hall, in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia, in which Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv defeated Pallacanestro Varese, an Italian professional basketball club, by a score of 78-77 bringing home, for the first time, the 1977 European Champions Cup.

I am taking the Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv championship story and interchanging it with the Republic of Azerbaijan and its statesman leader President Ilham Aliyev.

What is COP29

The United Nations (UN) 2024 Conference of the Parties (COP), or Climate Change Conference, or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), more commonly known as COP29, is the 29th United Nations Climate Change conference that was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November 2024.

Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan presided over COP29; Samir Nuriyev the head of the presidential administration headed the Organizing Committee.

Being a major oil and gas producer, the choice of Azerbaijan as the COP29 location and the host of the conference did raise some eyebrows.

As the president of US-AZ Cultural Foundation (USAZCF) that promotes Azerbaijan in the United States through culture and humanitarian subjects, I knew it was important to travel to Azerbaijan, attend this conference and arrive at my own conclusions.

It is worth mentioning here that deforestation could be a cause of climate challenges. At the 76^th session of the UN General Assembly, President of Mongolia, Mr. Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, made a landmark announcement: Mongolia will plant a billion trees by 2030, a remarkable contribution to world forestry.

Azerbaijan Standardization Institute (AZSTAND)

Becoming independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, Azerbaijan had much to catch up on, among which was joining the world of nations.

The purpose of The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is to bring together transformational organizations to form a global community that shifts the systems they work within towards a better future. The WBCSD’s vision, with over 230 leading business members, is that by 2050 over 9 billion people, the world’s population, can thrive within planet Earth’s boundaries.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-government, international standards development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.

The Subject of Interest: AZSTAND

Azerbaijan Standardization Institute (AZSTAND) was established in 2017, as the national standardization body for Azerbaijan, implementing measures on improvement of management in the spheres of standardization, metrology, accreditation and protection of patent law objects.

According to the Decree No. 1234 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AZSTAND is a public legal entity, and the preparation and application of standards, as well as representation in international organizations in this field, were entrusted to this institution.

AZSTAND Main Activities:

• Preparation, adoption and cancellation of standards;
• Management of the State Standards Fund;
• Coordinating the activities of Technical Committees;
• Representation in international and regional standardization organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan;
• Establishment of bilateral cooperative relations with organizations of foreign countries on standardization;
• Promotion of standardization and conformity assessment activities; since 2017, the Institute has been a full member of ISO and has participated in the Affiliate Country Program of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), represented in the European Organization for Standardization (CEN) as a Partner Standardization Body (CSB).

AZSTAND’s Mission and Vision

• Impartiality, honesty, and Fairness;
• Transparency and accountability;
• Credibility;
• Privacy;
• Openness to collaboration, change and innovation;
• Customer focus;

AZSTAND’s Main Goals

• Strengthening Azerbaijan Institute of Standardization institutional potential;
• Impacting the country’s competitiveness and prosperity among business circles, government authorities, and all other stakeholders in society;
• Work to ensure the development of the country;
• Promoting Azerbaijan’s participation in international organizations;

The Real Purpose of COP29 in Baku

Azerbaijan was in a conflict with Armenia since 1988, which ended in 2020. Since then, the country’s leadership has developed a broad and far sighted vision.

With the COP29 Conference, the largest Baku ever hosted, Azerbaijan has demonstrated its ability to successfully host such large-scale international events, in which some 70,000 people participated.

Baku’s high level of professionalism, forming a congenial environment for the participants, along with attention to detail, flawless traffic and highest level of security logistics gave the conference a smooth run.

COP29 has been one more step in Baku’s vision to be the host of an even larger scale event.

Speaking with the local people and due to the COP29 success, we are all tending to think that there is a very good possibility that in the not too far future Baku will proudly host the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup games or even the Olympic Games.

No matter what, COP29 has put Azerbaijan on the map, once again, and the country will stay on the map in every aspect it wishes.

See also: Young Climate Leaders: The New Generation