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BRUSSELS — Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s global climate talks, has suggested that continued fossil fuel extraction is compatible with the Paris Agreement.
With four months to go until COP29 kicks off in Baku, the Azerbaijani presidency on Friday announced a flurry of “initiatives” — a set of 14 non-binding pledges and partnerships that countries are encouraged to sign up to at the summit.
At the same press conference, the summit’s chief executive Elnur Soltanov suggested that the Paris climate accord — under which countries agreed to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally to 1.5C — does not necessarily mean reducing fossil fuel production.
“To be 1.5C-aligned is the goal,” said Soltanov, who also serves as Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, when asked if Baku believed that countries’ climate plans could include continued expansion of oil, gas and coal.
But he added: “We should somehow delineate between a 1.5C alignment and this view about hydrocarbons.” Citing projections that some fossil fuels will still be needed for energy and other uses even if the world reaches climate neutrality by mid-century, Soltanov said: “There is a certain compatibility between them.”
He added: “I think we should be talking more about emissions, which is really what causes global warming. So in that sense, I really believe that you can still be 1.5C-aligned and also — as I said, according to different models … hydrocarbons will continue to be the key.”
Azerbaijan is a major producer of oil and gas, and has plans to step up extraction. Its President Ilham Aliyev recently described his country’s fossil fuel reserves as “a gift of the gods.”
Last year, the United Arab Emirates’ COP28 presidency came under fire for an initial focus on tackling emissions — implying the widespread use of carbon capture, a technology untested at scale — rather than fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change. The Dubai summit eventually ended with a landmark call on governments to transition away from fossil fuels.
None of the 14 initiatives Azerbaijan presented on Friday directly address fossil fuel use.
The headline announcement was a new “Climate Finance Action Fund” (CFAF) to be headquartered in Baku, financed with “voluntary contributions” from countries and companies that produce fossil fuels.
Azerbaijan will be a founding contributor, COP29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said at the press conference.
But the CFAF won’t become reality before at least 10 countries have collectively pledged $1 billion, he added. Rafiyev declined to say how much the Azerbaijani government was planning to contribute or which potential contributors the presidency has already contacted.
Besides the fund, the presidency’s acronym-heavy announcement included, among other schemes, a “Green Energy Pledge” focused on infrastructure and regulation, a pledge to increase worldwide green energy storage capacity to 1,500 gigawatts by 2030, a “COP Truce Appeal” calling for a global ceasefire during the summit, and a partnership for “enhanced climate action” in the tourism sector.
At the same time, negotiations on the core outcome of the summit — a new, large-scale financial aid target to support climate action in developing countries — remain deadlocked.
The COP29 presidency is hosting an informal negotiators’ “retreat” next week in an effort to make progress.
“A successful COP in Baku is more important than ever,” said United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell, who was present for the start of Friday’s press conference via video link. “And let me be honest, we have our work cut out for us. This will be a tough meeting. There is much to do.”
