While the recent United Nations climate conference (COP28) ended with a commitment from states to initiate a “transition” away from fossil fuels, the country which will host COP29 this year, Azerbaijan, plans to increase its gas production over the coming years.
According to information revealed Monday by the British daily The Guardian, Azerbaijan plans to extract more than 49 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year in 2033, compared to 37 billion cubic meters currently. Such an increase is equivalent to an increase of more than 30% in the annual production of the country, which holds one of the most important gas deposits on the planet, located under the Caspian Sea.
Over a period of 10 years, according to data obtained by The Guardiantotal production will reach 411 billion cubic meters, which is expected to produce 781 million tons of greenhouse gases.
This increase in gas production, however, does not take into account other deposits which could be added to the exploited deposits in the coming years, while climate science clearly indicates that the planet must reduce its production and consumption of energy. fossils to hope to limit climate disruption.
At the end of a marathon of negotiations, the COP28 which was held in December in the United Arab Emirates produced a declaration in which countries around the world agreed on “the need for a strong, rapid reduction and sustained greenhouse gas emissions” which would keep alive the most ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement, namely limiting warming to a maximum of 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era.
The text leaves it to States to decide on the course of action to follow according to their national context, but it specifies the need to “transition away from fossil fuels”. This is the first time that a text adopted at a COP explicitly mentions the need to reduce our dependence on these polluting energies.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, reacted by insisting on the fact that this agreement must send a clear message to countries and companies which still derive enormous profits from the exploitation of the energies which fuel the crisis climatic. “I want to say that the exit from fossil fuels is inevitable, whether they like it or not. Let’s hope it doesn’t come too late,” he stressed.
According to a report published just before COP28 by the International Energy Agency, in addition to eliminating the still widely used coal (nine billion tonnes consumed in 2022), the use of coal should be reduced by at least 75%. to oil and gas within 25 years to hope to limit warming to the viable threshold of 1.5°C.
“Feeling of déjà vu”
Azerbaijan is a country very dependent on fossil fuels, which represent just under 50% of its gross domestic product, just over 50% of its budget revenues and just over 90% of its export earnings. Baku, where COP29 will be held in November, was one of the world’s oil capitals at the beginning of the 20e century. Since the 1990s, the country has also developed large oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea.
The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mukhtar Babayev, who was appointed president of COP29, is also a former leader of the fossil fuel sector. He worked from 1994 to 2003 in the Department of External Economic Relations of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic), before moving to the Department of Marketing and Economic Operations, and becoming Vice President for Ecology (2007). -2010).
Last year, the United Arab Emirates appointed Sultan Al Jaber, head of the country’s main oil company, to chair COP28. Quoted by Agence France-Presse, Alice Harrison, of Global Witness, therefore expressed a “feeling of déjà vu”, with a “former oil manager from an authoritarian petro-state”.