THE PRESIDENT OF Azerbaijan has defended the country’s fossil fuel sector and hit out at western politicians, NGOs and what he described as “fake news media” in a speech to world leaders at the COP29 conference in Baku.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, whose country is hosting the major UN climate conference this week, also said that Azerbaijan should “not be blamed” for selling oil and gas and that the world should be “realistic” about transitioning to renewable energy.

The COPs are annual gatherings of nearly 200 countries for important negotiations on climate action.

The host nation rotates to a new country in a different region every year through an election process within the region, with COP29 presided over by Azerbaijan in its capital city on the Caspian Sea. 

Azerbaijan’s fossil fuels sector accounts for around 90% of its export revenue and a significant proportion of its national GDP.   

Aliyev addressed the opening session of the World Leaders Summit today, which will see dozens of presidents and prime ministers deliver speeches on climate action and their country’s progress.

He discussed Azerbaijan’s plans for renewable energy, outlining projects that the country is undertaking to develop wind, solar and hydro-power and saying that it hopes to export renewable energy to Europe in the future, before turning to oil and gas.

“I understand that this topic is not very popular at a climate change conference but without it, my comments would not be complete,” Aliyev said.

“In the 19th century, Azerbaijan produced more than half of global oil production. If then, some western politicians and media called us a petrostate, probably that would have been acceptable. But when they call us a petrostate now today, this is not fair and it only demonstrates lack of political culture and knowledge,” he said.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan’s share in global oil production and global gas production is each less than one-tenth of a percentage but that the “fake news media of the country which is number one oil and gas producer in the world and produces 30 times more oil than Azerbaijan call us a petrostate”.

His remarks were a reference to the United States, which is the world’s top producer of oil and and of gas.

“They need to look at themselves or at least at their neighbour, which produces 10 times more oil than Azerbaijan,” he said, in a reference to Canada.

“I have to bring these figures to the attention of our audience because right after Azerbaijan was elected as the president of COP29, we became the target of a coordinated, well-orchestrated campaign of slander,” Aliyev claimed, adding: “Western fake media and so-called independent NGOs and some politicians are competing to spread false information and disinformation about our country.”

Concerns have been raised since countries in the UN’s Central and Eastern Europe region voted last year for the conference to be held in Azerbaijan.

Many activists expressed disappointment at the selection, pointing both to Azerbaijan’s human rights record and its fossil fuel industry, including Amnesty International. 

Fossil fuel exploits

Aliyev said that countries should not be “judged” by their natural resources but evaluated on other criteria instead, such as unemployment or poverty levels.

“These are and many other important criteria which should be the basis for evaluation of the country’s performance, not the country’s natural resources, which are a gift from God,” he said.

Aliyev previously described fossil fuels as a gift at a meeting of ministers in Germany in April and his comments were widely reported by media outlets. 

“I said it several months ago and all those international media who want to attack me quoted me that I said it was a gift from God, and I want to repeat it today here at this audience. Every natural resource is a gift from God, whether oil, gas, wind, gold, silver, copper,” he said.

Alievy said that countries “should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing them to the market because the market needs them and the people need them”.

“This is my message. As President of COP29, of course we will be strong advocates for green transition and we are doing it, but at the same time, we must be realistic.”

Climate scientists from around the world agree that phasing out fossil fuels must be done as quickly as possible in order to stop climate change from escalating further.

Burning fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal is a primary source of the greenhouse gas emissions that are trapping heat inside the atmosphere, causing global average temperatures to rise and destabilising the world’s delicate climate.

The situation is critical. Just yesterday, the World Meteorological Organisation confirmed that the past decade has been the warmest 10-year period of of modern records and 2024 is on track to be the hottest single year, calling it “another SOS” for the climate.

The country that hosts a COP is tasked with organising the conference alongside the United Nations and with trying to moderate negotiations to build bridges between divided countries, but does not have any specific powers to compel countries to make a particular decision on climate action one way or another.

Each country’s delegation will come prepared with its own positions, red lines and wiggle room, and after a series of clashes and consultations, a deal can usually be struck somewhere in the middle.

Progress can be made even if it may not align with the interests of the host country. Last year, for instance, COP28 was held in the United Arab Emirates, which is among the world’s top oil producers, but an agreement was still reached on countries “transitioning away” from using fossil fuels in energy sectors – albeit, a conclusion watered down in negotiations from its original level of ambition.

However, any linking in the public’s eye of the COP process with fossil fuels risks undermining the wider population’s trust in the readiness of leaders and officials to take the necessary steps to stop the climate crisis.