Here’s a thing…

Last year’s UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP28, was hosted by a major oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, and chaired by Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.  Do you want to guess which country is going to host COP29 in November of this year?

It has just been announced that Azerbaijan, another oil producer, will host COP29. Azerbaijan is a net energy exporter: crude oil and natural gas exports are central to its economy. The International Trade Council says this:

Crude oil and petroleum products are the cornerstone of Azerbaijan’s export sector. The country is known for its significant oil reserves and annual exports [of] millions of barrels of crude oil, refined petroleum, and related products. The export value for crude oil and petroleum products is estimated at around $10 billion.

Any guesses as to who might be the president of 2024’s COP29? Mukhtar Babayev: that’s who. He is, at present, Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, but before he entered politics he spent 26 years working for the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

Until recently, Azerbaijan had observer status at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) but last June OPEC invited it to become a permanent member.

How has this happened? How has the UN Climate Change Conference, our only real hope of stabilising our planet’s climate and rescuing its biodiversity, fallen so completely into the hands of the world’s major oil producers?

Even here, in a tiny nature reserve on the edge of a Wiltshire village, we have to ask these questions because decisions will be taken at COP29, in oil-producing Azerbaijan, that will affect us all.

Header image: Wildfire by jeff head (CC BY-2.0) flickr.com

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