AZERBAIJAN OFFICIALS HAVE backtracked on plans for COP29 to be organised by a committee exclusively composed of men after international backlash.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced the committee earlier this week, with 28 men and no women among its membership.

The decision drew immediate criticism, including from the deputy prime minister of Spain and Christiana Figueres, the former head of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change.  

A group of 75 women in business, civil society and academic wrote a letter this week calling on Azerbaijan to revise the committee, saying that the decision to include no women on the organising committee risked undermining the climate negotiation process.

“Gender diversity is crucial to successful negotiations and decision-making, bringing with it better, bolder decisions that have been shown to last,” the letter said. 

Azerbaijan announced an expansion of the organising committee today to 41 members made up of 29 men and 12 women.

Some of the women who were previously excluded from the committee include the Head of the Presidential Administration’s Department of Humanitarian Policy; the Commissioner for Human Rights; the Deputy Minister for Agriculture; and the Deputy Minister for Ecology.

Co-founder of SHE Changes Climate Elise Buckle said the change to the committee’s membership was “positive progress but we’re still far from a 50:50 gender balance”.

“This is a quick fix but not enough,” Buckle said.

Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition said the speed of Azerbaijan’s response was welcome but added there is “still a long way to go for gender parity to be achieved in the climate negotiations and all our wider communities”.

“Let’s hope COP29 revitalises the global drive for more inclusive policies around the world.”

COPs – Conferences of the Parties – are annual meetings of countries from around the world to make important decisions about policies to combat climate change. COP29 is due to be held in Azerbaijan at the end of this year.

Each year, the host country appoints a representative to act as president of the talks. Azerbaijan has named its Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev for the role.

Babayev spent 26 years at the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar), during which time he served as its vice-president of ecological affairs. He later became a member of parliament and was made the country’s minister of ecology in 2018.

It follows the United Arab Emirates coming under fire at COP28 last year over the presidency of Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, also an oil executive-turned-politician.