The first high-level meeting on the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action took place during the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30). The Dialogue, launched at the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, as part of the COP 29 Declaration on Water for Climate Action, is a COP-to-COP collaboration space aimed at fostering continuity and building a consistent, focused approach to integrating water considerations across the climate agenda. To date, it has brought together nearly 100 endorsers, including 73 countries.

During this 11 November event, countries and stakeholders showcased progress achieved since COP 29 and discussed a long-term vision for transforming the Baku Dialogue into a sustained Water for Climate Action platform through 2030.

Representatives from the COP 28, COP 29, and COP 30 Presidencies, who hosted the event with support from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), emphasized the need to scale up cooperative approaches to strengthen water resilience and adaptation. 

Highlighting the need for better data, Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General, urged integrated climate and water approaches and pointed to WMO’s efforts to improve data collection and sharing as essential for evidence-based policymaking.

In a video message, Retno Marsudi, UN Special Envoy on Water, called for a “future-oriented approach,” emphasizing that the “future of water will define the future of our climate.”

A representative from the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) highlighted the UNECE support for integrating water and transboundary cooperation considerations in climate policymaking, including in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director, stressed the need to tackle water not from an ecosystem point of view but in terms of the entire hydrological cycle. She also mentioned essential tools for achieving water solutions, including monitoring and knowledge sharing, and regulation and tariffs.

Representatives from the Republic of the Congo, the European Commission, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Uganda, France, Cyprus, Japan, Hungary, Türkiye, the UK, the Dominican Republic, Moldova, Chile, The Gambia, Tanzania, and Israel all shared their experiences, challenges, and priorities regarding the water-climate nexus.

Two basin organizations, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization and the Senegal River Basin Development Authority, also provided input.

In closing, Elchin Allahverdiyev, COP 29 Presidency, urged keeping water on the climate agenda by focusing on the “three Cs,” namely cooperation, continuity from COP to COP, and concrete action. [ENB Coverage of Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action High-level Meeting][ENB Coverage of the first interim meeting of the Baku Dialogue on Water]