Super pollutant action at Climate Week Baku 2026

Baku, Azerbaijan, 9 September 2026 – Governments, international organizations, financial institutions and private-sector partners gathered in Baku this week for UNFCCC Climate Week 4 and Baku Climate Action Week, with discussions focused on accelerating the shift from climate commitments to practical implementation, investment and partnerships.

Amina Akhmetzhanova, from the CCAC Secretariat contributed to high-level and technical discussions across both events, highlighting how action on methane and other super pollutants can deliver near-term climate benefits while supporting cleaner air, resilient agriculture, food security and sustainable development.

Across the discussions, a common message emerged: countries increasingly know where many of their priority mitigation opportunities lie. The challenge is translating those priorities into implementation through stronger policies and institutions, credible data and MRV systems, project preparation, partnerships and access to finance.

Putting climate-resilient agriculture into practice

On 8 September, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Agriculture and partners convened the high-level roundtable Harmoniya in Action: Partnering for Climate-Resilient Agriculture.

The roundtable brought together government representatives, FAO, financial institutions, development partners and the private sector to discuss how cooperation, innovation and investment can strengthen agricultural resilience and support farmers.

“The question is no longer whether agriculture needs to transform, but how we can make that transformation faster, smarter, more resilient and, of course, more inclusive,” said Majnun Mammadov, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Minister highlighted Azerbaijan’s efforts to expand modern irrigation, strengthen early-warning systems and use new technologies and climate data to support agricultural decision-making, while keeping agricultural transformation farmer-centred.

The discussion also highlighted the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers, launched at COP29 and now a flagship programme of the FAST Partnership. Harmoniya aims to strengthen coordination across climate and agriculture initiatives, improve access to climate finance and help translate international cooperation into practical opportunities for farmers, particularly smallholders, women and youth. FAO confirms that Harmoniya was launched by the COP29 Azerbaijan Presidency in 2024 and is now a FAST Partnership flagship programme.

Supporting livestock methane action in Azerbaijan

Building on this agenda, CCAC is beginning cooperation with Azerbaijan on an Agricultural Methane Reduction Roadmap focused on the livestock sub-sector.

The initiative will bring together government institutions, farmers and producer associations, the private sector, academia and other stakeholders to assess livestock methane data and policies, identify priority mitigation opportunities and MRV needs, and explore financing pathways for implementation. The roadmap will also provide recommendations to support agricultural methane action in the context of Azerbaijan’s NDC 3.0.

The cooperation will focus on connecting technical analysis and country priorities with practical opportunities for implementation, including identifying pathways to move priority methane mitigation measures towards projects and potential financing.

Connecting agricultural methane action with investment

On 9 September, at the UNFCCC Climate Week 4 Implementation Lab “Unlocking Climate Finance for Agriculture and Food Systems: Building partnerships to accelerate implementation,” CCAC presented the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator as a practical approach to helping countries move from planning towards implementation.

The UNFCCC programme lists the Implementation Lab on 9 September as part of Climate Week 4’s Implementation Forum in Baku.

The Accelerator combines policy and institutional support, data and MRV, technical assistance and project preparation, with a focus on mobilizing finance. CCAC funding is catalytic, helping countries strengthen enabling conditions, develop stronger projects and create opportunities that can attract larger sources of public and private finance.

The discussion also drew on the new UNEP and CCAC Hidden assets: The economic and health case for climate and clean air action assessment, launched on 7 September. The assessment examines 25 climate and clean-air solutions, including five directly related to agriculture. Across the full package of solutions, it finds that every US$1 invested could generate around US$15 in economic benefits globally. The findings reinforce the economic case for action while highlighting the importance of translating climate priorities into projects that can be financed and implemented. The assessment was published by UNEP on 7 September 2026.

Kazakhstan, one of the first countries participating in the Accelerator, provides a practical example. CCAC is advancing support for agricultural methane, with a strong focus on the livestock sector. The approach combines stronger policy and regulation with improved MRV and transparency systems and the preparation of agricultural methane opportunities towards investment readiness.

The approach also addresses the project preparation gap between identifying promising mitigation opportunities and developing projects that are sufficiently prepared for consideration by development banks, climate funds and other potential financiers. Early engagement with financing partners can help ensure that emerging project pipelines respond to real investment requirements.

Together, the discussions across UNFCCC Climate Week 4 and Baku Climate Action Week reflected a broader shift in the climate agenda: from identifying solutions towards creating the conditions to implement, finance and scale them.

For CCAC, this means helping countries connect national climate commitments with stronger policies and institutions, credible data, project development and investment, ultimately supporting measurable action on the ground.

As countries look towards COP31, CCAC will continue working with governments and partners to accelerate super pollutant action that delivers benefits for climate, clean air, economies and communities.