COP29: UN climate talks ‘no longer fit for purpose’ say experts
At the start of COP29, the country’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, defended Azerbaijan’s current exports of gas and plans to expand production by a third in the next decade.
“It’s a gift of God,” he told an audience in Baku.
“Every natural resource whether it’s oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all that are natural resources,” he said.
“And 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.”
The use of oil and gas are major causes of global warming, as they release planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide when they are burned.
President Aliyev also hit out at France for carrying out colonialist “crimes” and “human rights violations” in overseas territories.
Such strongly expressed views are extremely rare from the leader of a COP host, where the aim is to build consensus on how to tackle rising temperatures.
The authors of the letter are also concerned by the selection process for hosting COPs. Azerbaijan followed on from another major oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, which held the conference in Dubai last year.
“At the last COP, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, Indigenous communities and vulnerable nations,” said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.
“We cannot hope to achieve a just transition without significant reforms to the COP process that ensure fair representation of those most affected.”
The authors say that host countries “must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement.”
They also want smaller, more frequent COPs with clear accountability for the promises that countries make.
