Azerbaijan has been unanimously elected as the Chair of the Central and Eastern European Regional Group and a member of the Bureau for the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Report informs.
The COP16 session, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from December 2 to 13, also designates Azerbaijan as Vice-President of the Conference of the Parties during its two-year term as Chair of the regional group, which includes 15 countries alongside Azerbaijan.
The UNCCD is a global environmental accord dedicated to combating desertification, land degradation, and drought. The Central and Eastern Europe Regional Action Programme, established during COP5 in 2001 and endorsed in 2015, prioritizes regional activity, ecological agriculture, and knowledge enhancement.
The COP16 Bureau, representing 12 global regions, oversees the implementation of decisions made at the Conference of the Parties and organizes future events.