Oil runs deep in Azerbaijan, the host country of this year’s UN climate summit. Just 30 minutes south-west of the Cop29 conference centre lies the site of the world’s first industrially drilled oil well, opened in 1846.
Just metres away sit a handful of operating oil wells, nodding away. The Guardian spoke to an employee of Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, who was working on one of the wells. Asked what oil meant for Azerbaijan, the 47-year-old worker said: “Too much!”
“It’s our future,” he said through an interpreter. “And our green future.”
Can oil be green? The worker said Socar had made efforts to clean up its oil supply, which he described as a “good thing”. Asked what he made of efforts to reduce fossil fuel usage, he said that in 100 years he imagined the world would be far less reliant on oil.
The worker, who has been at Socar for 15 years, said he had seen the impacts of the climate crisis first-hand. Baku’s winters had warmed considerably, he said, and snow was arriving later in winter across the country.
Azerbaijan’s economy has long been dependent on its oil reserves. Nothing makes this clearer than the Villa Petrolea. The compound, named for the Latin for “oil estate”, is where the Nobel brothers once lived and worked. In the late 1800s, Baku produced half of the world’s petroleum, and the Nobel brothers’ company, Branobel Oil, was responsible for most of that supply.
One of the Nobel brothers, Alfred, was also the inventor of dynamite, earning him the nickname “Merchant of Death”. To restore his legacy, he used his fortune from his shares in the oil company to create the Nobel prize. It is estimated that about 25% of the funds used to start the Nobel Foundation came from Branobel money.
Today, the Nobel brothers’ home is a museum – but a “living” one, since oil companies still hold events in its meeting room, a Villa Petrolea tour guide said.
The Nobels are not the only historical figures whose petroleum fortunes powered Azerbaijan. Oil money looms large over Baku. Towering over the city is the House of Hajinski, a striking five-storey building that was once the residence of the oil baron Isa Bey Hajinski. The oil magnate and philanthropist also owned a paraffin refinery in the sector of Baku known as Black City. The first owner of an automobile in Baku, Hajinski paid to build the nearby boulevard in 1901.
Other petroleum bosses also shaped Baku. The “coolest oil baron” was Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, said the Guardian’s tour guide, who is the tourism manager for Baku’s old city. Taghiyev paid to have the Middle East’s first secular Muslim school for girls built in the late 1800s.
Scientists have long said the swift phase-out of fossil fuels is necessary to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Though Baku’s economy runs on oil, many residents were excited to see Cop29 held in their city.
One shopkeeper in the old city of Baku said he was “of course” familiar with the climate summit, and added that he has been told that this summit was meant to help climate-vulnerable countries. He said there was a need to protect nature “without human interference”.
Nearby, two young men sat smoking outside a coffee shop. “It’s really an honour for us to be hosting the event on climate change in our country,” said Azadil Eyvazob, 21.
Fakhri Hasanov, 22, agreed but said the summit should really have taken place in a part of Azerbaijan that is less familiar with the green transition.
“Here in Baku, they are already making progress with bringing in more bikes and electric cars,” he said. “Other people need to hear the message more.”
