Elnur Soltanov: COP29 leader secretly filmed promoting fossil fuel deals

A senior official at COP29, the soon-to-open UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan, appears to have used his role to organize a meeting to discuss possible fossil fuel deals.

The BBC has seen a secret recording, which shows the director general of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing a series of “investment opportunities” in his country's national oil and gas company , with a man presenting himself as a potential investor.

“We have many gas fields that need to be exploited,” he said.

A former official at the UN climate negotiating body told the BBC that Soltanov's attitude was “totally unacceptable”. It is a “betrayal” of the other members of the COP, he argued.

Questioned on this subject by the BBC, the Azerbaijani COP29 team did not wish to comment.

COP29 opens this Monday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

This is the 29th annual United Nations climate summit, during which governments discuss ways to limit and prepare for climate change…

This is the second year in a row that the BBC has revealed alleged wrongdoing by the host government.

Devastating floods that hit Spain two weeks ago left more than 200 people dead and were a terrifying reminder of the extreme weather conditions that climate change could bring.

The BBC has received secret documents and video recordings made by human rights organization Global Witness.

The BBC understands that one of its representatives contacted the COP29 team posing as the director of a fictitious Hong Kong investment company specializing in energy.

He said the company was interested in sponsoring the COP29 summit, but in return wanted to discuss investment opportunities in Azerbaijan's national oil and gas company Socar.

An online meeting with Elnur Soltanov took place. In addition to his role as Director General of COP29, Mr. Soltanov is also Deputy Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan and serves on the board of directors of Socar.

Oil and gas account for about half of Azerbaijan's economy and more than 90 percent of its exports, according to U.S. government statistics.

During the meeting, Mr Soltanov explained to the potential sponsor that the aim of the conference was to “resolve the climate crisis” and “move away from hydrocarbons in a fair, orderly and equitable manner”.

Anyone, he said, including oil and gas companies, “can come with solutions,” because Azerbaijan’s “doors are open.”

However, he was not only open to climate solutions, he was also open to discussing deals, including oil and gas.

As a first step, Mr. Soltanov suggested that the potential sponsor might be interested in investing in some of the “ecological transition projects” in which Socar is involved. But then he began talking about opportunities related to Azerbaijan's plans to increase gas production, including new pipeline infrastructure.

“There are many joint ventures that could be created,” Mr. Soltanov told the potential sponsor. “Socar markets oil and gas all over the world, including Asia.”

He then described natural gas as a “transitional fuel” and said, “We will have some amount of oil and natural gas produced, perhaps forever.”

While it is true that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body responsible for climate science, recognizes that oil and gas will have a role to play until 2050 and beyond that, he clearly indicated that “the development of new oil and gas deposits is incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C”.

It also goes against the agreement reached at the last global climate summit, which calls for a transition away from fossil fuels.

Mr. Soltanov wishes to participate in the opening of discussions, telling the potential sponsor: “I would be happy to create contact between your team and theirs (Socar) so that we can begin discussions.”

A few weeks later, the fake Hong Kong investment company received an email: Socar wanted to pursue this possibility.

Attempting to conclude trade deals within the COP process appears to be a serious violation of the standards of conduct expected of a UN conference official.

These events are meant to reduce the world's use of fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change – not to sell more of them.

These standards are set by the United Nations body responsible for climate negotiations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The United Nations said it could not comment on the BBC's reporting. They noted that “the same rigorous standards” applied to anyone hosting the conference, and that those standards reflected “the importance of impartiality on the part of all session chairs.”

The code of conduct for COP officials states that they are “expected to act without bias, prejudice, favoritism, caprice, self-interest, preference or deference, relying strictly on sound, independent and fair judgment.”

The text continues: “They must also ensure that their personal opinions and beliefs do not compromise or appear to compromise their role and functions as officials of the UNFCCC.”

Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres was in charge of the UN climate process, during the historic COP conference in Paris in 2015, when UN member countries agreed to work together to keep global temperature rises in check below 2°C.

She told the BBC she was shocked that someone involved in the COP negotiations would use her position to try to secure new deals on fossil fuels.

Ms. Figueres believes that such behavior is “contrary” to the objective of these conferences. It is a “betrayal” of the process, according to her.

The BBC also viewed emails exchanged between the COP29 team and the fake investors. According to Global Witness, these emails prove once again that sustainable development was not a priority for the conference organizers.

A sponsorship deal of 600,000 US dollars (approximately 367 million CFA francs) is discussed with the fake company in exchange for presenting Socar and participating in an event on “sustainable investment in oil and gas “, during the climate conference.

COP29 officials drafted a contract offering five passes, with full access to the summit. The contract initially required the fake company to make sustainability commitments. But when she objected, the Azerbaijanis abandoned one of the commitments and agreed to consider “corrections” for another.

Of course, since there was no company, no contract was signed.

The BBC asked the Azerbaijani COP29 team and Socar what they thought of this information. They did not speak out.

The information came a year after the BBC obtained leaked documents revealing that the UAE was considering using its role as host of COP28 to strike deals in the field. oil and gas.

Even so, it was at this summit that agreement was reached for the first time on the need for a transition away from fossil fuels.

This shows that progress can still be made at COP29, but allegations of host country malfeasance just days before the conference opens may not bode well for promising negotiations.