Statements that are striking. The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, who is hosting the COP29 on climate in Baku, repeated and assumed this Tuesday his expression “gift from God” to designate hydrocarbons, which have made his country rich.
“Quote me when I say it’s a gift from God. I want to repeat it here today, in front of this audience,” Ilham Aliev said at the opening of a summit of world leaders at COP29. “Any natural resource, oil, gas, wind, solar, gold, silver, copper: these are natural resources and countries should not be blamed for having them and providing them to the markets, because the markets need them” . As host country of COP29, “we will also be fierce defenders of a green transition (…) But at the same time we must be realistic,” underlined the authoritarian leader.
Without directly naming the United States, Ilham Aliev protested against “the media fake news of the country which is the world's leading producer of gas and oil and produces 30 times more oil than Azerbaijan” and who “qualify us as an oil state. They better look in the mirror.” Describing Azerbaijan as an “oil state” “is not fair and demonstrates a lack of culture and political knowledge,” defended the president, stressing that the country represents 0.7% of global oil production. oil and 0.9% of that of gas.
Upon appointment as host of COP29, “we became the target of a coordinated and well-orchestrated campaign of defamation and blackmail by Western media, so-called independent NGOs and some politicians,” he said. – he thundered again in front of the audience of heads of state gathered in the Olympic stadium in Baku.
The president of Azerbaijan, the second oil and gas power in a row to chair climate negotiations, after the United Arab Emirates last year, first described its gas reserves as a “gift from God” in April, joining the recurring discourse of most developing countries wishing to exploit the windfall under their feet.
A few months later, Mukhtar Babaev, president of COP29 and Azerbaijani Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, announced that his country would continue to increase its production of gas, “a transitional energy”, to meet international demand. , “in parallel” with its investments in renewable energies.
At the same time, the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, called on the approximately 200 countries participating in COP29 to find a compromise on the financial aid that developed countries must pay to poorer countries, at the end of the two weeks of conference. “Developing countries must not leave Baku empty-handed. An agreement is essential,” he urged. “The world must pay, or humanity will pay the price. »
