Baku hosted Monday a conference on “The Role of Small and Medium Businesses in the Green Economy", co-organized by the Azerbaijan’s Minister of Economy, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA).

In his remarks, Mikayil Jabbarov, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Economy noted that SMEs makes a total of 99% of businesses in Azerbaijan, with ensuring transition to the green economy depending largely on the “green transition” of SMEs.

“The Central Bank of Azerbaijan is developing "green taxonomy" for advancing "green finance," said Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President-Designate, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources.

He noted that thanks to the development of taxonomy economic activities would be classified based on "green standards, which will enable enterprises to receive more support for sustainable and environmentally friendly investments.

“This process will allow SMEs to more effectively use available financial resources in order to finance their green transition,” Mukhtar Babayev added.

Other speakers included, Nigar Arpadarai, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29 Azerbaijan, Orkhan Mammadov, KOBIA Chairman of the Board, Yusif Abdullayev, Executive Director of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Agency (AZPROMO), and Jens Nielsen, Founder and CEO of the World Climate Foundation.

The conference also saw the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in green transition of SMEs between the Azerbaijan’s Small and Medium Business Development Agency and ACWA Power Azerbaijan Renewable Energy LLC.

The panel discussions was followed by a Q&A session.