On September 11-12, Times Higher Education (THE), Sumgayit State University (SSU) and Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) jointly organized a forum on "Prioritising climate action on the global higher education agenda".
The main purpose of the forum was to increase the contribution of higher education institutions in supporting the fight against climate change, the 13th Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations, to promote the cooperation of higher education institutions and other interested parties in solving the climate crisis, as well as to discuss the important role of conducting scientific research in relevant fields.
In his opening speech, Minister of Science and Education Emin Amrullayev spoke about the importance of our higher education institutions hosting the international forum in preparation for COP29 and increasing the competitiveness of universities. During the opening ceremony of the forum, Elnur Soltanov, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Chief Executive Director of COP29, Vazeh Askarov, Vice-Rector of ASSU, Rufat Azizov, Rector of SSU, and Phil Baty, Chief Global Affairs Officer of THE delivered a speech as well.
Rector of SSU Rufat Azizov moderated the panel titled "Why is the current climate action agenda failing all of us?". During the panel, the role of higher education institutions in the process of achieving the climate action agenda was discussed extensively.
Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, bp’s Vice President for the Caspian region; Nargiz Hajiyeva, the Country Director of the British Council Azerbaijan; Samir Mammadov, the Head of the Azerbaijan delegation to the UN Global Compact; Nigar Arpadarai, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29; ADA University’s Vice-Rector Fariz Ismayilzade; Cambridge University’s Global Director of Climate Education Christine Özden; Seeram Ramakrishna, Professor at the National University of Singapore, and other official guests, university leaders, politicians, and high-level representatives of state and non-governmental organizations also participated and held discussions in the panels.