Here's another one you can add to the left's ever-growing list of 'do as I say, not as I do'.
A senior COP29 official in Azerbaijan reportedly used his role as heading up the fight on climate change...to secure meetings with potential investors in the country’s oil and gas sectors.
Energy production drives 60% of Azerbaijan's economy. Elnur Soltanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister and COP29 chief, was covertly recorded discussing investment opportunities in the state-owned SOCAR, according to PJ Media.
"SOCAR Trading is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia. To me, these are the possibilities to explore. But in any case this is something that you need to be talking to SOCAR, and I would be happy to create a contact between yourself and them," he was caught on tape saying.
He added: "We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed."
The PJ Media report says that SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, reportedly responded to a fake investment group, indicating interest in meeting, according to Global Witness.
In the meeting, COP29 head and Azerbaijan's Deputy Energy Minister Elnur Soltanov discussed the event’s goals, stating that COP aims to “solve the climate crisis” by “transitioning away from hydrocarbons.”
Still, he expressed openness to oil and gas investments, pointing to Azerbaijan’s gas expansion plans and new pipeline infrastructure. This marks the second year a petro-state has used its COP presidency to promote fossil fuel interests, raising questions for the UN on oversight.
Simon Roach from Global Witness called it “endemic corruption on a planetary scale,” emphasizing that COP standards, set by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, strictly prohibit such conflicts of interest.
COP29 is likely to see less high-profile attendance, as leaders like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz plan to skip.
Scholz faces a political crisis at home, while others may anticipate waning support for climate initiatives, especially with climate skeptic Donald Trump’s political resurgence.
