Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, has been named as president-designate of the Cop29 climate conference. He will be the second oil executive in a row to head the global environmental summit after UAE's Sultan Al Jaber in 2023.
Mukhtar Babayev, who was formerly an executive at state oil company Socar, will preside over the 29th session of the conference of the parties to be held in Baku, a senior ministry official Rashad Allahverdiyev told the French press agency AFP Friday.
Babayev was congratulated on social media platform X by the United Arab Emirates, which hosted the climate talks that ended in December.
Cop28, presided over by Sultan Al Jaber, chief of the national oil company Adnoc, reached an accord for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner," according to the final statement.
"The direction of travel for the global energy system now has been signed off by 200 countries," International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol told French news agency AFP in December.
But the accord has been criticised for failing to reinforce that message with detailed plans to reduce fossil fuel use and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius – regarded as necessary to avert the worst impacts of long-term planetary heating.
Closer to 'an abyss'
"With another petrostate hosting the UN climate conference, our concerns multiply," said Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative.
"Despite Mukhtar Babayev's ties to the oil and gas sector... he must transcend the vested interests of the powerful fossil fuel industry that is primarily responsible for the climate crisis," Singh added.
Collin Rees of Oil Change International agreed.
"Azerbaijan appointing another lifelong oil man to lead... pushes us closer to the abyss," he said.
Tasneem Essop, executive director at Climate Action Network International, said Friday that Babayev should "strengthen the outcome of COP28 on transitioning away from fossil fuels", adding that financing developing countries to achieve this transition should be a priority.
Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 appoint state oil company veteran as #COP29 president 🚨
— Power Shift Africa (@PowerShftAfrica) January 5, 2024
Azerbaijan has appointed its environment minister Mukhtar Babayev to be the president of the #COP29 climate talks in #Baku in November.
Babayev spent 26 years at Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company,… pic.twitter.com/DNSUBksVTT
Diplomatic deadlock
Global Conference of the Parties meetings rotate between different regions each year, with hosts agreed on by unanimous vote among the countries in each zone.
In 2023, Asian countries settled on the UAE, while Eastern Europe – which includes Russia– overcame months of deadlock to nominate Azerbaijan for this year.
Babayev worked for Socar from 1994 to 2003 in the foreign economic relations department.
After time in marketing and economic operations, he became the firm's vice-president for ecology between 2007 - 2010.
Babayev has been minister for ecology and natural resources since 2018.
Azerbaijan has also named deputy foreign minister Yalchin Rafiyev as its chief negotiator for Cop29.
Business interests
Last year's Cop chief Al Jaber was the first person from outside government or diplomacy to lead the climate talks.
As well as leading the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, he represented the UAE at previous Cop summits and runs the Masdar renewable energy firm.
He was accused in the run-up to the conference of using his Cop position to serve Adnoc's business interests.
Azerbaijan, another historic oil producer since the early 20th century, has seen further oil and gas development in the Caspian Sea since the 1990s, energy expert Francis Perrin of France's Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) told AFP.
Baku, which mostly exports its fuels to Europe, is today a member of OPEC+.
"The country remains very dependent on hydrocarbons, which account for a little under 50 percent of its GDP," Perrin said, as well as "a little over 50 percent of government revenue and over 90 percent of export earnings".
(with newswires)
