Azerbaijan Names Ex-Oil Executive to Head Climate Talks

AFP/APP

Baku: Global climate talks will be led for the second year in a row by a man with ties to the oil industry, after Azerbaijan named a minister to preside over the November COP29 meeting.

Mukhtar Babayev, currently minister for ecology and natural resources and formerly an executive at state oil company SOCAR, “has been named president-designate for the 29th session of the conference of the parties” in Baku, senior ministry official Rashad Allahverdiyev told AFP Friday.

Last year’s COP28, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, was presided over by Sultan Al Jaber, chief of the national oil company ADNOC. An accord reached in Dubai in December nevertheless called for the first time for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly, and equitable manner.”

“The direction of travel for the global energy system now has been signed off by 200 countries,” International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol told AFP in December.

But the accord has been criticised by some environmentalists for failing to buttress that message with detailed plans to reduce fossil fuel use and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, regarded as necessary to avert the worst impacts of long-term planetary heating.

“With another country hosting the UN climate conference, our concerns multiply,” said Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative.

“Despite Mukhtar Babayev’s ties to the oil and gas sector, he must transcend the vested interests of the powerful fossil fuel industry that is primarily responsible for the climate crisis,” Singh added.

Collin Rees of Oil Change International agreed.

“Azerbaijan appointing another lifelong oil man to lead… pushes us closer to the abyss,” he said.

Tasneem Essop, executive director at Climate Action Network International, said Friday that Babayev should “strengthen the outcome of COP28 on transitioning away from fossil fuels.”.

“Delivery of finance for this transition in developing countries” should be “a big priority for COP29,” Essop added.

Rees also called for “serious progress on rich countries paying to help the world achieve a fair, funded transition away from all fossil fuels.”.

The UAE presidency of last year’s talks wished Babayev “every success… to build on the transformative and historic success of COP28 and keep 1.5 C within reach” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Azerbaijan has also named deputy foreign minister Yalchin Rafiyev as its chief negotiator for COP29.

Global COP meetings rotate between different regions each year, with hosts agreed upon by unanimous vote among the countries in each zone.

In 2023, Asian countries settled on the UAE, while Eastern Europe, which includes Russia, overcame months of deadlock to nominate Azerbaijan for this year.

Babayev worked for the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) from 1994 to 2003 in the foreign economic relations department. He moved into marketing and economic operations before becoming the firm’s vice president for ecology from 2007 to 2010.

Babayev has been the minister for ecology and natural resources since 2018.

Last year’s COP chief Al Jaber was the first person from outside government or diplomacy to lead the climate talks. As well as leading the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, he has in the past represented the UAE at previous COPs and runs the Masdar renewable energy firm. He was accused in the run-up to the conference of using his COP position to serve ADNOC’s business interests.

Azerbaijan, another historic oil producer since the early 20th century, has seen further oil and gas development in the Caspian Sea since the 1990s, energy expert Francis Perrin of France’s Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) told AFP.

Baku, which mostly exports its fuels to Europe, is today a member of OPEC+.

“The country remains very dependent on hydrocarbons, which account for a little under 50 percent of its GDP,” Perrin said, as well as “a little over 50 percent of government revenue and over 90 percent of export earnings.”