“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2025
2025
2024-11-19
While a UN climate summit is taking place in Baku, where discussions are being held on how to slow down and stop human-caused climate change, there is nevertheless almost no optimism regarding the results of such conferences.
The decision to hold the summit in Azerbaijan, an oil and gas producing country, had already become a subject of criticism. As the first week of the ongoing summit showed, it serves primarily as a platform for self-promotion for Azerbaijan.
Before the start of the conference, leading world media outlets had published numerous articles noting that Azerbaijan, the host country of COP29, has a history of severe human rights violations: opposition figures and journalists are being arrested, and free speech is restricted. The Guardian newspaper had also discovered that Azerbaijan tried to generate positive reactions to the event on the X social network using fake accounts.
In his opening speech, Ilham Aliyev responded to the criticisms: “I have bad news for you: 72 thousand people from 196 countries have arrived, including 80 presidents, vice presidents, and prime ministers”.
Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials, including presidential assistant Hikmet Hajiyev, have used this climate summit to criticize countries with whom they have tense political relations. This particularly refers to France and the Netherlands, whom Azerbaijani officials have accused of neo-colonialism. Aliyev and Hajiyev also addressed Armenia, stating that not attending the summit means not taking climate issues seriously. Official Baku forgets that Azerbaijan in in the leading position in the South Caucasus in carbon dioxide emissions - more than Armenia and Georgia combined.
Azerbaijani media, for their part, are focused on extracting praise for Azerbaijan from the guests who have arrived in Baku. Addressing the issue of being an oil and gas country, Aliyev noted that “oil and gas are God's gift” to Azerbaijan. At the same time, officials responsible for organizing the climate event have been conducting parallel negotiations to sign new oil and gas deals.
Regarding expectations from the climate summit, many note that such events do not have a positive impact on counteracting climate change. Although country representatives report on fulfilling their commitments, harmful gas emissions into the atmosphere continue to increase.
The oil and gas industry is the leader in carbon dioxide emissions, and these countries, including Azerbaijan, are not planning to reduce extraction volumes. Nearly 90% of Azerbaijan's exports consist of oil and gas, and it is hard to imagine how a country that continuously increases its military expenditures will give up part of its petrodollar income. Another major polluting sector is transportation, including aviation. Social media users make ironic comments that delegates arrive at such events in hundreds of private jets, which already indicates a lack of serious commitment to addressing the issue.
Mohamed Adow, representing the think tank Power Shift Africa, stated that the first week of this summit was the worst in his 15 years of participation, as it is unclear what the target for climate financing is and how these funds will be made accessible to vulnerable countries.
The Minister of Environment of Panama, attending COP29, also remarked that there is more talk than action.
The past week was also marked by several political controversies. Polish President Andrzej Duda refused to participate in the "family photo" ceremony, citing the presence of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as the reason. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following his departure from Baku, announced that Ankara had severed all ties with Israel. It is well known that Israel is one of Azerbaijan’s close and strategic partners. Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, relations between Turkey and Israel have severely deteriorated, while Azerbaijan continues to strengthen its ties with Israel. Additionally, Israeli President Isaac Herzog was unable to reach Baku because Turkey did not allow his plane to pass through its airspace.
Interestingly, it has also been revealed that 1,773 individuals involved in lobbying for coal, oil, and gas extraction were granted the right to participate in the climate summit held in Baku.