'Victim of slander and blackmail': COP29 host Azerbaijan hits out at West in defence of oil and gas

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, host of this year’s UN climate summit, hit back at Western critics of his country’s oil and gas sector during his keynote address at COP29 on Tuesday, accusing them of  orchestrating a “campaign of slander and blackmail” against Azerbaijan.

His remarks were swiftly countered by UN Secretary General António Guterres, who took the stage immediately afterward, calling the continued reliance on fossil fuels “an absurd strategy.”

The exchange highlighted a key challenge in the climate negotiations: while the global push is for a transition to green energy, many nations, including wealthy Western countries, continue to depend on fossil fuels.

Azerbaijan’s finance ministry noted that the country’s oil and gas sector’s contribution to the economy is decreasing as it diversifies into other sectors.

“As a president of COP29 of course, we will be a strong advocate for green transition, and we are doing it. But at the same time, we must be realistic,” Aliyev, who has labelled his country’s oil and gas resources a “gift from god”, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

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“Countries should not be blamed for having them, and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market, because the market needs them. The people need them,” he added.

Aliyev criticised the US, the largest historical carbon emitter, and the European Union for double standards in their climate policies.

While the US remains the world’s top oil and gas producer, European nations have set stringent 2030 emissions targets but have also secured new gas supplies following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Reactions to Aliyev’s speech at COP29 were mixed, with some observers suggesting it could hinder progress at the summit.

“Using a climate conference to promote the continued production and use of fossil fuels is … provocative, and deeply disrespectful to the countries on the frontline of climate impacts,” Reuters quoted Romain Ioualalen, global policy lead at campaign group Oil Change International, as saying.

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The tension also reflected mistrust between rich and developing countries, many of which say the wealthiest have not done enough to solve a problem that they created.

“Developed countries have not only neglected their historical duty to reduce emissions, they are doubling down on fossil-fuel-driven growth,” climate activist Harjeet Singh told Reuters.

US national climate adviser Ali Zaidi brushed off Aliyev’s remarks, saying if every country decarbonised at the pace of the United States, the world would meet its climate targets.

Aiming to cut methane emissions from the United States, President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday finalised a methane fee for big oil and gas producers. But the measure is likely to be scrapped by incoming president Donald Trump.

The EU declined to comment on Aliyev’s speech, while a Dutch appeals court on Tuesday issued a landmark climate ruling that favoured Shell and dismissed an earlier order for the oil and gas company to sharply reduce emissions.

Pay up

This year’s summit is meant to focus on raising hundreds of billions of dollars in climate finance to help fund the switch to clean energy and adaptation to a warmer world.

“The world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price,” Guterres told the summit. “We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), and time is not on our side.”

Development lenders such as the World Bank, which have been among the biggest sources of climate finance for poorer countries, are under pressure to provide more money.

On Tuesday a group of 10 of the largest announced a joint goal of increasing finance to low- and middle-income countries to $120 billion by 2030, a roughly 60% increase on the amount provided in 2023.

That funding is also meant to attract more private financing, by lowering the risk associated with climate-linked investments.

For the rest of the two-week summit, governments will be discussing what else they can add to that annual funding target.

With this year on track to be the hottest on record, scientists say global warming and its impacts are unfolding faster than expected.

Even as leaders traded barbs in Azerbaijan, climate-fuelled wildfires forced evacuations in California and triggered air quality warnings in New York.

In Spain, survivors are coming to terms with the worst floods in the country’s modern history.

“These extreme weather events that the world is facing daily suggest that humanity and the planet are hurtling towards catastrophe,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said.

“Every COP must make progress, irrespective of the geopolitical dynamics.”

With inputs from agencies