Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev told the Cop29 climate change conference on Tuesday that oil and gas are “a gift from God.” Aliyev defended his country’s fossil fuel resources to delegates at a United Nations summit in Baku after some activists criticized Azerbaijan’s hosting of the summit.
He further added, “Countries should [oil and gas] You shouldn’t be blamed for putting resources into the market because the market needs them. ”
“Azerbaijan’s share of global gas emissions is only 0.1%,” he told the conference.
The declaration surprised many at the summit, which brought together world leaders, thousands of delegates and activists to advance the transition away from oil and gas.
Azerbaijan’s role as host country was already controversial. Before the summit began, a recording featured in a BBC report showed Ernur Soltanov, the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s Cop29 team, posing as a potential investor about an “investment opportunity” in the state oil and gas company. It is believed that he was seen talking to a man.
“There are a lot of gas fields that are going to be developed,” he seems to be saying. Azerbaijan’s Cop29 team has not commented on the allegations.
But Aliyev said “Western fake news media” were unfairly targeting the country.
“I must draw these figures to the attention of the audience, because immediately after Azerbaijan was elected as the host country of Cop29, we became the target of systematic and cleverly planned slander and intimidation. Because of that,” Aliyev said.
“Western fake news media, so-called independent NGOs and some politicians are [they] They were competing by spreading disinformation and misinformation about our country,” he added.
President Aliyev and his government have been accused by human rights groups of intensifying their crackdown on free speech, including against climate activists and journalists, ahead of the climate summit.
Ahead of COP29, Azerbaijani authorities extended the pre-trial detention of at least 11 journalists from the country’s remaining independent media outlets on currency smuggling charges related to alleged funding from Western donors.
“Countries are not responsible for their natural resources, but they are responsible for the threats they pose to humanity by extracting natural resources from the ground and causing climate change,” said Alex Ruffalowich, executive director of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. There is,” he said. “This is a betrayal of the countries participating in the negotiations.”
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told world leaders on Tuesday to “pay up” to prevent humanitarian disaster from climate change, saying time was running out to limit the devastating rise in global temperatures. He said that
“The world must pay a price when it comes to climate finance, or humanity will pay the price,” Guterres said in his speech. “The sound you hear is the ticking of a clock. We are on the final countdown to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C, but time is not on our side.”
This year is expected to be the hottest on record. Scientists say there is evidence that global warming and its effects are progressing faster than expected, and the world may already be warming 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial average temperatures. Scientists say this is a critical threshold beyond which there is a risk of irreversible and extreme events. climate change.
The conference had already gotten off to a sluggish start with many world leaders absent. The recent re-election of Donald Trump in the United States has cast doubt on America’s commitment to combating climate change, with his team hinting at the possibility of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement once he takes office.
This uncertainty has many participants worried about the outcome of Cop29, where the immediate task is to create a $1 trillion fund to fight climate change.
US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are all absent from the summit.
Aliyev’s comments reflect the country’s broader stance on fossil fuels, as Azerbaijan remains heavily dependent on oil and gas revenues. Earlier this year, he announced plans to increase gas production.
