Azerbaijan's climate role is part of a regional peace bid

2024-10-28 11:44:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Labeling Petroshets as unfit hosts is hypocritical play. When Azerbaijan hosts COP29 next month, it will be the 28th time the climate summit will be held in an oil and gas producer. Every host - except Switzerland - has been involved in the withdrawal. Every country in the world – bar none – is a consumer of fossil fuels.

Instead, it is wiser to ask how a host country became a host, what they plan to achieve and why. Azerbaijan never anticipated playing host country this year; we expected our offer to be vetoed by our neighbor, Armenia, which had occupied almost a fifth of our territory for 30 years. However, in an unprecedented deal last December, Armenia agreed to support Azerbaijan as host as part of ongoing peace talks.

Negotiations continue and substantial progress has been achieved. The border delimitation commissions are active. Armenia's commission has recently accepted the Alma-Ata Declaration - a commitment to border sovereignty between post-Soviet states agreed in the 1990s.

Many would like to see a formal peace deal signed before the COP, but that is a very different proposition from two sides agreeing to a deal in the negotiating room. Armenia's constitution still contains a revanchist claim over Azerbaijan's territory. The speed with which we can finalize a peace agreement depends largely on how quickly Armenia can move on this issue. Critics who called this stalemate have to wonder if they would sign a peace deal while their former adversary still claims their territory. However, regardless of whether an agreement will be signed by the time the COP starts, it will still be a peace COP because of the way it unfolded. This year's COP will focus on increasing the financial target - the New Quantified Collective Target - to make the world's transition away from fossil fuels a reality. In addition, Azerbaijan has established a climate fund, in which we expect other oil and gas producing countries and companies to invest.

Azerbaijan is demonstrating how an oil and gas producer can change. We are not only implementing the region's largest renewable energy projects, but we are transitioning from fossil fuels to electricity exports. In partnership with the EU, Azerbaijan is developing an electrical cable under the Black Sea to connect Caspian Sea wind energy to the mainland. While we cannot influence the demand that drives foreign energy markets, we are reshaping the supply side.

Azerbaijan is hosting the COP because we are walking the path to peace. At the COP, we will advocate for new funding to finance a just transition from fossil fuels to renewables, a shift we are already actively pursuing ourselves./ CNA

Hikmet Hajiyev, Adviser on Foreign Affairs to the President of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan