TREND, Baku — John Podesta, Senior Advisor to US President Joe Biden for International Climate Policy, has arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in the preparatory meetings for the upcoming COP29 conference, according to an announcement by the US Embassy.

According to Trend News Agency, the US Embassy expressed a warm welcome to Podesta, highlighting his visit as a step to strengthen cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States on critical climate issues. Podesta's involvement underscores the importance of the discussions expected at the pre-conference meetings leading up to COP29.

The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is scheduled to take place in Azerbaijan this November. The decision to host COP29 in Baku was made at the plenary meeting of COP28 held in Dubai on December 11 last year.

As Baku prepares to become a global hub for climate discussions, it anticipates welcoming between 70,000 and 80,000 participants from around the world. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, established at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992, aims to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. COP, the Conference of Parties, serves as the supreme decision-making body of the convention, which includes 198 participating countries. Historically, COP meetings are held annually, unless decided otherwise by the parties, with the first COP taking place in March 1995 in Berlin, Germany.