Azerbaijan president backs oil and gas sector at UN climate summit
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, which is hosting this year's annual summit, defended the necessity of oil and gas while criticizing the West for pushing unrealistic expectations on other nations.
The president of Azerbaijan has pushed back against the demand countries rapidly abandon oil and gas in favour of so-called green technology. Speaking at the United Nations climate summit in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, President Ilham Aliyev said the country's oil and gas were a “gift from God.”
“Countries should not be blamed for having them, and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market, because the market needs them. The people need them,” President Aliyev told the crowd in Baku, as reported by Reuters.
“As a president of COP29 of course, we will be a strong advocate for green transition, and we are doing it. But at the same time, we must be realistic,” he added.
The Azeri president took aim at the West, singling out the emissions outputs of the United States and European Union while pushing a green agenda on the rest of the world.
“Unfortunately, double standards, a habit to lecture other countries, and political hypocrisy became kind of modus operandi for some politicians, state-controlled NGOs and fake news media in some Western countries,” Aliyev said.
The ongoing UN climate summit has drawn representatives from around the world to Baku, in the country where Asia meets Europe. This year's summit, known officially as COP29, is focused on collecting hundreds of billions of dollars to put towards the global energy transition.
“Enabling every country to take strong climate action is 100% in all countries' interests, even the largest and wealthiest,” said Simon Stiell, who oversees the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the annual summit.
“The climate crisis is fast becoming an economy killer,” he warned.
COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2024-11-12 15:42:37 -0500that’s a start but the green scam must be abolished.