Azerbaijan’s president has branded oil and gas a “gift from God” as he welcomed delegates to the COP29 climate summit.
President Ilham Aliyev praised the use of natural resources, including fossil fuels, at the opening ceremony of the United Nations conference in Baku on Tuesday.
The Caucasian nation’s leader made the call as he slammed criticism regarding his country’s exports of oil and gas.
Aliyev asserted that Azerbaijan has faced a “campaign of slander and blackmail” amid calls to boycott the summit due to its reliance on fossil fuels.
He accused Western “fake media” – especially from the US – and environmental organisations of running the campaign.
The president of the oil and gas-rich country argued, as he had in the months preceding the summit, that nations should not be judged based on their natural resources and how they use them.
“Quote me that I said that this is a gift of God, and I want to repeat it today here at this audience,” Aliyev said, having used a similar line in April.
The president said the tens of thousands of registered participants in the summit, among them many heads of state, are “bad news” for the critics.
Figures from the International Energy Agency show that oil and gas account for about 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports.
“Fake news media of the country which is (the) number one oil and gas producer in the world and produces 30 times more oil than Azerbaijan, call us ‘petrostate’,” Aliyev said.
“They better look at themselves.”
He also took aim at “so-called independent NGOs and some politicians, as if (they) were competing in spreading disinformation and false information about our country”.
The president repeated accusations of hypocrisy against critics in the West, which he pointed out continues to buy Azeri gas.
Europe has raised its purchases as it seeks to reduce reliance on Russian supplies, in a bid to both boost energy security and limit funding for Moscow’s war machine.
No country should be blamed “for bringing natural resources to the market, because the market needs them,” Aliyev asserted.
At the COP29 summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it would be “absurd” to lean heavier now into fossil fuels, despite the negative effects of global warming.
He said while all countries must be active in the fight against climate change, “the G20 countries should take the lead in this process.”
“The clock is ticking,” Guterres said, pointing out that projections show 2024 will likely be the hottest year on record.