Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev repeated his claim that fossil fuels were a “gift from the god” before the head of the UN said “doubling down on fossil fuels is absurd”
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Aliyev doubles down on fossil fuels
Kicking off the leaders’ speeches segment of the COP29 climate summit in Baku on Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s president lashed out fiercely at his critics, doubled down on fossil fuels and failed to announce an expected new national climate plan (NDC).
Ilham Aliyev promoted his country’s solar projects and green energy zones, some of which Climate Home visited in May. They are concentrated in Nagorno Karabakh, a disputed region from which Armenians were driven out by Azerbaijani forces during the most recent phase of the long conflict.
Aliyev then said he would “like to say a few words about another segment of our energy security, which is oil and gas – I understand that this topic is not very popular at a climate change conference but, without that, my comments would not be complete”.
He denied that Azerbaijan is a “petrostate”, as it has been labelled in press coverage, because it accounts for less than 1% of global oil and gas production. Aliyev said American “fake news media” should look at their own country, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer.
While the US does produce far more oil and gas than Azerbaijan, it is a much bigger economy so it is a lot less reliant on that oil and gas. Azerbaijan gets two-thirds of its revenue from oil and gas, the ninth highest figure in the world.
Aliyev said the foreign media had attacked him for saying fossil fuels were a “gift of the god”. He added: “I want to repeat it today here at this audience – it’s a gift of the god”.
He said that countries cannot be blamed for bringing their natural resources to international markets, adding “we must be realistic”. He then talked about how the European Union had signed a deal to get more gas imports from his country after the start of the Ukraine war, through to 2027.
He finished off with what he called a “message” to those who had called for a boycott of COP29, including NGOs. “I have bad news for them, we have 72,000 registered participants from 196 countries… so the world gathered in Baku and we say to the world ‘welcome’.”
He then shook hands with the head of the UN Antonio Guterres, who got up to say that “doubling down on fossil fuels is absurd”. The UN chief added that NDC climate plans compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5C mean countries have to “slash” global fossil fuel production and consumption by 30%” by 2030.
In contrast to Aliyev’s criticism of “so-called independent NGOs”, Guterres said that “scientists, activists, and young people are demanding change – they must be heard, not silenced”.
