Azerbaijan Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

local scientists consider the Abseron Yasaqligi (Apsheron Peninsula) (including Baku and Sumqayit) and the Caspian Sea to be the ecologically most devastated area in the world because of severe air, soil, and water pollution; soil pollution results from oil spills, from the use of DDT pesticide, and from toxic defoliants used in the production of cotton; surface and underground water are polluted by untreated municipal and industrial wastewater and agricultural run-off

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

dry, semiarid steppe

Land use

agricultural land: 57.6% (2018 est.)

arable land: 22.8% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 2.7% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 32.1% (2018 est.)

forest: 11.3% (2018 est.)

other: 31.1% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 57.6% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 1.38% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

note: data include Nagorno-Karabakh

Revenue from forest resources

0.02% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 24.64 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 37.62 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 44.87 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 2,930,349 tons (2015 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

salt water lake(s): Caspian Sea (shared with Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan) - 374,000 sq km

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 400 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 570 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 11.6 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

34.68 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)