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Oil and gas are a “gift of god”, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev has told the Cop29 climate conference – which is country is hosting.
Speaking to delegates at the United Nations summit, held in the capital city of Baku, Mr Aliyev defended his nation’s oil and gas resources.
He added that “countries should not be blamed for having [oil and gas] and should not be blamed for bringing the resources to the market, because the market needs them”.
“Azerbaijan’s share in global gas emissions is only 0.1 per cent” he told the conference.
The declaration stunned many at the summit, where global leaders, thousands of delegates and campaigners have assembled to push for a transition away from fossil fuel.
Azerbaijan’s role as the host was already under scanner. Before the start of the summit, recordings highlighted in a report by the BBC allegedly showed the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s Cop29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.
“We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed,” he appears to say. Azerbaijan’s Cop29 team have not commented on the allegations.
However, Mr Aliyev said “western fake news media” was unfairly targeting the country.
“I have to bring these figures to the attention of our audience, because right after Azerbaijan was elected as a host country of Cop29, we became a target of a coordinated, well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail,” Mr Aliyev says.
“Western fake news media and so-called independent NGOs and some politicians, as if [they] were competing in spreading disinformation and false information about our country,” he adds.
Alex Rafalowicz, executive-director of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, said: “Countries are not to blame for their natural resources, but they are responsible for the threat they pose to humanity by extracting them from the ground and driving climate impacts… This is betraying the nations that are present here in these negotiations.”
The conference was already facing a muted start, with many world leaders missing. The recent re-election of Donald Trump in the United States has cast doubt on American climate commitments, with Mr Trump’s team indicating a likely withdrawal from the Paris Agreement once he assumes office.
This uncertainty has left many delegates anxious about the outcome of Cop29 where the task at hand is to create a trillion dollar fund for climate action.
Joe Biden, the US president, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, and Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, have all missed the summit.
Mr Aliyev’s statements echo Azerbaijan’s broader stance on fossil fuels, as the nation continues to rely heavily on oil and gas revenues. Earlier this year, he announced plans to increase gas production.
