{"id":294077,"date":"2024-01-06T18:08:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-06T17:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=294077"},"modified":"2024-01-06T18:08:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T17:08:29","slug":"cop29-petrostate-climate-conference-will-be-held-in-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=294077","title":{"rendered":"COP29 Petrostate Climate Conference will be Held in Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could this get funnier? Azerbaijan, once described as the nation where it rains oil, has just appointed a state oil company veteran as COP29 President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Azerbaijan appoint state oil company veteran as Cop29 president <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published on 04\/01\/2024, 5:19pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mukhtar Babayev spent 26 years at Azerbaijan\u2019s state-owned oil and gas company Socar, where he tried to limit the company\u2019s environmental damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Lo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Azerbaijan has appointed its environment minister Mukhtar Babayev to be the president of the Cop29 climate talks in Baku in November.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Babayev will chair the talks, Azerbaijan\u2019s deputy foreign minister Yalchin Rafiyev will be his lead negotiator, according to<\/a> the Cop28 presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babayev spent 26 years at Azerbaijan\u2019s state-owned oil and gas company Socar, where he tried to limit the company\u2019s environmental damage, before becoming environment minister in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One negotiator who met Babayev recently described him as \u201cnice\u201d and \u201csoft\u201d but added \u201cyou don\u2019t feel the authority and status like from [Cop28 president] Sultan [Al-Jaber], I don\u2019t feel he is an independent person able to push for phasing out fossil fuels globally\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rafiyev is a newcomer to climate diplomacy. He did not attend the Cop26<\/a> or Cop27<\/a> climate talks and his active X (formerly known as Twitter) account<\/a> has only mentioned climate change once in over six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2024\/01\/04\/azerbaijan-appoint-state-oil-company-veteran-as-cop29-president\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My first thought this has to be a joke to annoy environmentalists, but the UN unhabitat.org website confirms the location of the next climate conference;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Event date<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday 11 November, 2024 \u2013 Sunday 24 November, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Description<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to the UNFCCC will convene from 11 to 24 November 2024. It will take place in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/unhabitat.org\/events\/2024-un-climate-change-conference-unfccc-cop-29<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Obviously it would be unfair to let the UAE get all the oil and gas sales action, it was inevitable another major petro-industry player would want a chance to sell their product to climate delegates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I predicted Saudi Arabia would be the next venue, but the Persian Gulf is a little unsettled right now \u2013 Yemen based Houthi rebels<\/a> claimed responsibility for burning an oil depot in Jeddah in 2022<\/a>, apparently as part of Saudi\u2019s ongoing proxy war with Iran, so maybe Azerbaijan was seen as a more settled venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that Azerbaijan\u2019s geopolitical situation is not entirely settled. Azerbaijan fought and won a significant battle against Armenia in 2020<\/a>, which ended with a significant border shift in Azerbaijan\u2019s favour, and Russian peacekeepers stationed in the disputed border region. There were continued clashes as recently as 2022, so international arms dealers might also be interested in attending the climate conference. It is likely Armenian delegates will want to attend the conference, so the COP29 floor show could be particularly entertaining this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only question, how will COP29 organisers convince small nations delegates to sign the deal? Surely they won\u2019t fall for the same trick twice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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COP28: Were Small Nation Delegates Lured Away so a Deal could be Struck?<\/a><\/blockquote>