Within the scope of the “UN Talks” programme, the 8th edition was held this week by the Turkish World Monitoring Centre of the Divan Association. This week’s topic of the presentations on the theme of COP-29 Azerbaijan was “Sea Coast and Climate Change: Coastal Erosion, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Management Strategies in the Caspian Sea Coast”. Gülşah Ciner started her presentation by mentioning the causes of coastal erosion and the soil losses, infrastructure problems and the negative impact on the lives of living organisms in terms of biodiversity as a result of coastal erosion. Ciner, who discussed the Caspian Sea, which is very important for Azerbaijan, from a historical perspective, stated that more than 50 per cent of coastal erosion in the Caspian Sea and Asian coasts takes place here. In addition, it was emphasised that the Caspian region maintains its importance today in geological and geopolitical terms due to the fact that it has the vast majority of energy reserves. Due to its important location, the question of the legal status of the Caspian Sea was another issue that was carefully discussed in the presentation. Ciner, who touched upon the attitudes of the littoral countries of the Caspian Sea on this status, concluded her presentation by mentioning coastal management strategies. At the end of the presentation, the participants expressed that they are looking forward to the conference to be held on 11-22 November 2024, especially on how Azerbaijan will bring solutions to the problem of coastal erosion and coastal management strategies at COP-29.
