Ilham Aliyev, the strongman president of Azerbaijan, used his platform at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Germany on Friday to declare the presence of fossil fuels in his country a “gift of the gods” and declare his intention to expand Baku’s exports to Europe.
Aliyev’s robust defense of oil and gas – major contributors to his nation’s economy – was particularly notable as the United Nations honored Azerbaijan with hosting duties for this years “COP29,” the U.N.’s annual climate alarmism conference. Azerbaijan is taking the reins from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the world’s most formidable oil exporters, which appointed the head of the state-run oil company there in charge of organizing the conference.
COP29, the sequel to last year’s COP28, will take place in Baku in November. The objective of the COP (Conference of the Parties) summits is to address the alleged “climate crisis” the world is facing by pressuring Western nations to make commitments to abandon fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. Environmental activists and the tens of thousands of elites who participate in these conferences annually rarely pressure the world’s top polluting countries, India and China, into limiting the use of fossil fuels or their carbon emissions.
Aliyev delivered an address at the Berlin conference in which he committed to investing in the development Azerbaijian’s natural gas industry with the intent of supplying Europe, which has seen its fossil fuel supply jeopardized by its staunch opposition to the invasion of Ukraine by top supplier Russia.
“As the head of the country which is rich with fossil fuels, of course we will defend the right of these countries to continue investments and continue production, because the world needs it,” Aliyev proclaimed on Friday, according to Bloomberg. “Having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It’s a gift of the gods.”
Aliyev reportedly added that humans would need fossil fuels for “many more years” and that his country was hoping to meet that demand, at least in the European Union.
“We largely are investing in increasing our gas production because Europe needs more gas from new sources,” Politico quoted Aliyev as saying in the same speech. “Our oil and gas will be needed for many more years, including European markets.”
“Aliyev said that half of the country’s natural gas exports was going to Europe and the country would provide 20 billion cubic meters of gas to the region by 2027,” Bloomberg noted. “The comments contrast with those earlier this week that the EU was unwilling to finance new projects and was yet to give a guarantee it will continue buying its gas in the future.”
The European Union began expanding its outreach to Azerbaijan in the aftermath of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At the time, Politico recalled, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Baku declaring the country a “crucial energy partner” despite its authoritarian government and ongoing extermination of Armenian Christians in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Aliyev appeared to have completed at the end of 2023.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (R) and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen (L) shake hands after signing a memorandum of understanding on increasing import of Azeri natural gas as part of their meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, on July 18, 2022 (Presidency of Azerbaijan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
The Freedom House human rights organization ranked Nagorno-Karabakh, now devoid of its indigenous Christian population and in full control of Islamic Azerbaijan, the least free place in the world in 2024.
Azerbaijan received hosting duties for COP29 in December. The rotating hosting duties had to, by U.N. rules, go from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, but conflicts stemming from the Ukraine invasion had resulted in no selection of a host all participants could agree on. While Armenia, on the grounds of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing campaign, had initially objected to its host bid, it ultimately ceded and allowed for Baku to take the COP29 mantle. At the time, the Guardian noted that Azerbaijan relied on oil and gas for almost half its GDP and “more than 92.5% of its export revenue,” making it unlikely to aggressively call for an end to the fossil fuel industry.
Azerbaijan’s bid to host may still upset environmentalists slightly less than its predecessor’s, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the world’s foremost oil powerhouses. Adding outrage for climate alarmists, the UAE named the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the government-run oil corporation, the president of COP28.
Scandals abounded surrounding the decision, beginning with a report accusing the United Nations of giving ADNOC access to COP28 communications and peaking when the ADNOC and COP28 president, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, declared in November, “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5º C.” Climate alarmists claim that it is necessary to prevent the earth’s temperature from rising more than 1.5ºC (2.7ºF) above the average temperatures prior to human industrialization to avoid the destruction of all humanity.
In the same comments, which al-Jaber later claimed were taken “out of context,” he complained that the abrupt elimination of fossil fuels would “take the world back into caves.”
“I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist,” he insisted.
COP28 ultimately ended with no direct call for countries to abruptly end their reliance on fossil fuels, a major disappointment for environmentalists.
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