Azerbaijan‘s climate role is part of a regional bid for peace”/>
Labeling oil-producing countries as “unsuitable host countries” is a game of hypocrites. COP29, which will take place in Azerbaijan next month, will be the twenty-eighth climate summit to be held in the oil and gas producing country.
As Day.Az reports, this was stated by the Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan – Head of the Department for Foreign Policy of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev to the British edition of the Financial Times.
Hikmet Hajiyev noted that all the countries that hosted the conference, with the exception of Switzerland, are engaged in mining. All countries in the world are consumers of fossil fuels. Instead of labeling, it would be more reasonable to ask how the country became the host of the event, what it plans to achieve and why. Azerbaijan did not at all expect to be the host this year; we expected that neighboring Armenia, which had occupied almost a fifth of our territory for thirty years, would veto our application. However, in an unprecedented agreement last December, Armenia agreed to support Azerbaijan as host of ongoing peace negotiations. Negotiations are ongoing and significant progress has been made. The work of border delimitation commissions is underway. The Armenian Commission recently adopted the Alma-Ata Declaration, a commitment to respect the sovereignty of borders between post-Soviet states agreed in the 1990s. Many would like to see a formal peace agreement signed before COP begins. But this proposal is of a completely different kind, while the two parties agree on [мирном] agreement. The Armenian Constitution still contains a revanchist claim to Azerbaijani territory. The speed with which we can reach a peace agreement largely depends on how quickly Armenia can move on this issue. Critics who call it foot-dragging must wonder whether they would sign a peace deal while their former enemy still lays claim to their territory. However, regardless of whether it is signed by the time the COP begins, this event, due to its background, will still be a peace conference.
“This year, COP will focus on raising the New Collective Quantitative Target for climate finance to achieve the global transition away from fossil fuels. In addition, Azerbaijan has launched a climate fund in which we expect other oil and gas producing countries and companies to invest. Azerbaijan is leading by example demonstrates how an oil and gas producer can make this transition. We are not only implementing the largest renewable energy projects in the region, but also moving from exporting fossil fuels to exporting electricity. In partnership with the European Union, Azerbaijan is developing a project to lay an electric cable along the bottom of the Black Sea. sea to connect the wind energy resources of the Caspian Sea with the continent. Although we cannot influence the demand for energy resources in foreign energy markets, we are fundamentally changing the nature of the supply. Azerbaijan is hosting the COP because it is following the path of peace. We will advocate for the creation of new funds to finance a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. And we ourselves are already actively working in this direction,” the presidential aide emphasized.