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The key UN climate summit hosted by Azerbaijan this year risked being “co-opted” by the fossil fuel industry that was the key driver of climate change, a group of leading US Democrats said in a letter to White House officials.
The 26 signatories, including senators Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jan Schakowsky, said they were “deeply concerned by the appointment of Mukhtar Babayev” as the president-designate of the UN COP29 summit.
Babayev, the minister of ecology in Azerbaijan, spent more than two decades at the state-owned oil and gas company Socar before becoming a member of the cabinet of President Aliyev.
The letter, addressed to US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Biden climate envoy John Podesta, stopped short of pushing for Babayev’s removal, but urged the UN to update its conflict of interest guidelines to “ensure this situation does not happen again.”
It echoes the call by more than 100 US lawmakers and members of European parliament last year for the withdrawal of Sultan al-Jaber, the head of state-owned oil company Adnoc, as president-designate of COP28.
“When Mr Babayev is elected, it will be the second year in a row that COP is headed by a fossil fuel executive,” the politicians wrote. “Given these conflicts of interest, we risk the process being co-opted by the same fossil fuel industry that is the greatest driver of our climate crisis.”
The UN climate change arm introduced rules last year requiring summit delegates to disclose their affiliations. At least 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists were registered at COP28 in Dubai, or fourfold the attendance at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, after the United Arab Emirates hosts widened access.
The UN aims to have smaller gatherings after peak attendance of more than 65,000 in Dubai. The COP30 summit in 2025 is to be held in Brazil.
“Time is running out, and this international process is too important for the United States to stand by as yet another negotiation is captured by fossil fuel interests,” the letter said.
COP29 declined to comment. But President Aliyev last month defended Azerbaijan’s fossil fuel-based economy, saying that its “god-given” gas would be needed for decades to come.
Oil and natural gas brings in about 90 per cent of its export revenues, and finances about 60 per cent of its budget, according to International Energy Agency figures.
The US politicians also raised concerns about human rights issues around COP29 in Baku, to be held in November, on the grounds that it had suppressed climate protests last year.
Its leadership has also faced criticism for the recent military takeover of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenia says led to 100,000 Karabakh Armenians fleeing, and subsequent detentions.
“[We] find it deeply troubling that countries like Azerbaijan that persistently flout international human rights law are selected as conference hosts,” the Democrats said.
The upcoming UN climate talks in Bonn in June, a precursor to the main COP event, would be the “key first test of Azerbaijan’s leadership”, said Tom Evans, climate diplomacy lead at consultancy group E3G.
“Every country must submit a new climate transition plan to the UN in the next year,” he noted. “To lead by example, they can prioritise climate above oil and gas interests by publishing their own plan to keep warming to 1.5C and transition away from fossil fuels, as the world agreed to do at COP28.”
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