COP29: Oil and gas ‘gift of god’, says host Azerbaijan president

The president of COP29’s host nation advised the UN local weather convention on Tuesday that oil and gasoline had been a “gift of god”.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev criticised “Western fake news” concerning the nation’s emissions and mentioned nations “should not be blamed” for having fossil fuel reserves.

The country plans to expand gas production by up to a third over the next decade.

Shortly afterwards, UN chief António Guterres told the conference that doubling down on the use of fossil fuels was “absurd”.

He said the “clean energy revolution” had arrived and that no authorities may cease it.

Some observers had expressed considerations about the world’s largest climate conference taking place in Azerbaijan.

Its minister for ecology and natural resources – a former oil executive that spent 26 years at Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company Socar – is the conference’s chairman.

There are additionally considerations that Azerbaijani officers are using COP29 to boost investment in the country’s national oil and gas company.

But addressing the conference on its second day, President Aliyev said Azerbaijan had been subject to “slander and blackmail” ahead of COP29.

He said it had been as if “Western fake news media”, charities and politicians were “competing in spreading disinformation…about our country”.

Aliyev said the country’s share in global gas emissions was “only 0.1%”.

“Oil, gasoline, wind, solar, gold, silver, copper, all…are pure assets and nations shouldn’t be blamed for having them, and shouldn’t be blamed for bringing these assets to the market, as a result of the market wants them.”

Oil and gas are a major cause of climate change because they release planet-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide when burned for energy.

The US is also under the spotlight at the conference, following the election victory of Donald Trump – a known climate sceptic.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden’s envoy John Podesta known as out president-elect Trump’s view that climate change was a hoax and mentioned the US workforce would proceed to work on the deal handed at COP28 in 2023.

He added that Washington was also working on a deal passed last year in Dubai to triple renewable power by 2030.

Addressing the conference in Baku on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Guterres decried “doubling down on fossil fuels”.

“The sound you hear is the ticking clock,” he mentioned.

“We are within the ultimate countdown to restrict world temperature rise to 1.5 levels Celsius and time will not be on our aspect.”

He called 2024 a “masterclass in climate destruction” with disasters being “supercharged by human-made climate change”.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization beforehand mentioned that 2024 is on track to be the world’s warmest year on record.

Guterres said “a new finance goal” was needed, with wealthiest countries paying the most.

“They are the largest emitters, with the greatest capacities and responsibilities,” he mentioned. “Developing countries must not leave Baku empty-handed.”

The Azerbaijani president’s feedback are unlikely to derail talks behind the scenes, that are largely about getting additional cash for poorer nations to assist implement their local weather plans.

Developing nations are calling for richer nations to agree collectively on a fund that would add as much as $1 trillion, utilizing private and non-private cash.

Leaders of many of the world’s largest polluters weren’t current in Baku, together with Biden, France’s chief Emmanuel Macron and India’s Narendra Modi.

The setting minister for Burkino Faso, a central African nation among the many poorest on the earth, advised the BBC that additional cash was important.

Roger Baro mentioned it might assist his nation cope with the present impacts of local weather change within the nation, which is experiencing widespread drought, flash floods and illness outbreaks.

The disasters occurred within the Sahel area, which noticed temperatures of 45C this yr in a heatwave that scientists mentioned would have been unattainable to succeed in with out local weather change.

Among different world leaders to take to the stage on Tuesday was Spain’s prime minister, who known as for “drastic measures” after floods killed greater than 200 individuals within the nation.

Experts say that climate change contributed to the heavy rainfall that caused the floods.

“We need to undergo decarbonisation, adapt our towns and infrastructure,” mentioned Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

COP29 is scheduled to final till 22 November, however there are already fears that the tough points on the desk may make a ultimate settlement very tough.