The video risks further accentuating distrust of COP29. Elnur Soltanov, the director general of this new edition of the world climate summit, which is to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22, was filmed proposing potential oil and gas investments in the country . The affair, revealed by BBCcomes at the worst time for the organizers, just a few days before the launch of the global high mass in the fight against climate change, already highly contested elsewhere.
Oil and gas promotion
According to the British channel, the recording of the official was obtained through the NGO Global Witness, a structure that fights to defend human rights around the world. One of the members of the association allegedly posed as the emissary of a Hong Kong investment fund, which could have constituted a potential sponsor of COP29, in order to make an appointment with Elnur Soltanov. The representative of this fake company asked to discuss investment opportunities in the national energy company Socar, in exchange for a climate summit partnership.
During this videoconference meeting, Elnur Soltanov first suggested that his interlocutor take an interest in Socar projects linked to ecological transition and renewable energies. But, as the BBC always tells us, the conversation quickly drifts towards fossil fuels, which the person in charge does not hesitate to promote. “Socar markets oil and gas throughout the world, including in Asia,” explains the manager, who is also deputy minister of Energy in Azerbaijan. Before going on to describe natural gas as a “transition fuel”, then adding, regarding a possible agreement: “We will have a certain amount of oil and natural gas produced, perhaps forever.”
Without wishing to comment directly on the results of this journalistic investigation, the UN reacted to the British channel by recalling “the importance of the impartiality of all the presidents” of the various COPs. Last year, the same media had already shown in another investigative article that the United Arab Emirates, host country of the previous climate summit, had wanted to use this opportunity to reach agreements on oil and gas projects.
Worrying respect for human rights
This new affair is part of a more general context of hostility from part of the international community towards the organization of this summit in Baku. Azerbaijan is regularly singled out for its numerous violations of human rights, particularly in terms of freedom of expression. Opponents of the authoritarian regime of Ilham Aliyev, president of the country continuously since 2003, are threatened by the country’s authorities with each criticism of power. Last April, Anar Mammadli, a man at the head of an association promoting environmental justice, was arrested by the Azerbaijani authorities for “smuggling.” He faces eight years in prison.
Another example: Gubad Ibadoghlu, a famous academic and anti-corruption activist, arrested in July 2023 for “religious extremism” and “purchasing or selling counterfeit currency”. “Two trumped-up accusations,” protests the NGO Amnesty International. The NGO was concerned, a few days ago, about the state of health of the opponent, kept under house arrest. “According to his family, his heart problems have worsened to the point that his life is in danger and he cannot obtain the necessary care in the country,” reports the human rights organization. This problematic situation in the country led the European Parliament to denounce human rights abuses in Azerbaijan at the end of October, making the organization of a COP “incompatible” there.
The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region retaken by force from Armenia last year by Azerbaijan following a military offensive, has led 120,000 Armenians who lived there to exile in Armenia. A real “ethnic cleansing”, Yerevan then denounced. A few weeks ago, at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, the Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeyhun Bayramov, did not take any steps towards his Armenian neighbor. “Partial peace is not an option after so much suffering inflicted by irredentism and territorial claims against a neighbor,” he said at the time.
Macron will not make the trip
Faced with this criticism, several world leaders will not travel to Baku for COP29. According to France Infothe French president, Emmanuel Macron, will not make the trip. The Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, should go there. “Of course, I would have preferred that this COP was not held in Baku,” she admitted, Wednesday, November 6, during a Senate hearing. But, “we will not play the politics of the empty chair because that is playing the politics of our opponents,” she then added.
Several political leaders, from all sides, signed a column published Thursday, November 7 in Le Figaro in order to urge the government to “boycott COP29 in Azerbaijan”. These elected officials, including Anne Hidalgo, Valérie Pécresse, Sébastien Delogu and Stéphane Ravier, affirm that “the holding of this conference must not serve to endorse the autocratic, polluting and corrupting regime of Azerbaijan, nor encourage its expansionist and destabilizing.