Mahir Aliyev is the Coordinator of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the European region and Coordinator of the Interim Secretariat of the Tehran Convention.

For 25 years Mr. Aliyev has been serving in the United Nations in various positions at country office and headquarters in New York and Geneva. Mr. Aliyev has held different posts in the UN entities, working in the field of environmental resource management and international environmental governance.

During 2000–2009, Mr. Aliyev managed a portfolio of multi-million projects under the Montreal Protocol programme, Climate Change and International Waters. He has led UN missions and coordinated implementation of large-scale environmental projects in over 30 countries of Eastern Europe, South-East Asia, Africa, and Middle East.

Mr. Aliyev supervised and implemented multilateral water resource management projects in the Lake Chad, Niger River, Agulhas and Somali Large Marine Ecosystem, Caspian Sea, Dnieper River, and others.

Since 2012 till present, Mahir Aliyev has been heading the Secretariat of the Framework Convection for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea (Tehran Convention).

In 2016–2018, Mahir Aliyev supervised the implementation of the Environment and Security programme in the European region. The task team under Mr. Aliyev’s supervision launched the UN cooperation with the Munich Security Conference in the field of environment and security and concluded a cooperation agreement between the two organizations. Mahir Aliyev authored numerous expert analysis and articles on the role of the environment for peace and security in the modern world. He facilitated numerous high-level round tables on the subject with senior representatives of European Governments and members of the European Parliament.

In 2019 – 2020, Mr. Aliyev mobilized cooperation with expert groups in Oxford University, London’s Imperial College, University of Geneva and a number of other lead academic institutions on the issues of climate technology and innovation, greenhouse gas removal, energy efficiency and use of nature-based solutions for environmental sustainability. During this period Mr. Aliyev supervised implementation of projects on green economy, green cities and ecological connectivity.

Since 2021, Mr. Aliyev leads the work of the Climate Action Task Team in Turkey and coordinates the interagency effort on the development of Turkey’s National Climate Action programme.

Mahir Aliyev holds a Graduate Degree from the Azerbaijan State Institute of Languages (1996), a Master’s Degree in Environmental Resource Management from Western University in Azerbaijan (2001) and a Postgraduate Degree in Environmental Diplomacy from the University of Geneva (2007).