The next United Nations climate conference (COP29) will be organized by a committee composed entirely of men, according to what we see when reading the list of 28 members published by Azerbaijan. The country which will welcome the international community also makes room for supporters of fossil fuels, being itself a major producer of oil and gas.
The president of this global climate conference is the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mukhtar Babayev, a former leader of the fossil fuel sector. He will be supported by 27 other men to organize the meeting, but also to lead the negotiations which will take place in November. For comparison, for COP28 held in Dubai, 63% of members were women.
“Canada, which has adopted a feminist international aid policy, should request a representative committee,” responded Monday the general director of the Climate Action Network Canada, Caroline Brouillette. “Climate change affects everyone, not just people. And given the state of converging crises that characterizes the start of 2024, the world does not have the luxury of doing without the demonstrated benefits of climate leadership from women and gender non-conforming people at COP29. »
The international organization “She Changes Climate”, which brings together women engaged in the fight against the climate crisis, reacted on Monday on the X network by denouncing the composition of the committee, which constitutes “a step backwards”.
The all-male list published by Azerbaijan, which specifies the name and position of each member, includes the presence of Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov, who recently praised the growth of the country’s gas production. He has also stated on several occasions that oil and gas exports constitute an essential element in the “energy security” of certain regions of the world, notably Europe.
The committee also includes Ruslan Aliyev, who is the general director of Azerigas Production Association, a gas marketing company that is linked to SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic), the national oil and gas company.
The president of COP29, Mukhtar Babayev, himself worked from 1994 to 2003 in the external economic relations department of SOCAR, before moving to the marketing and economic operations department, and becoming vice-president in charge of ecology (2007-2010).
AzerEnergy President Balababa Rzayev is also on the list. This company is the largest electricity producer in the country. Production is mainly based on the use of oil and gas.
Dependent on fossils
The Minister of Economy, Mikayil Jabbarov, that of Foreign Affairs, Jeyhun Bayramov and the Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan, Samir Sharifov, are also part of the organizing committee of the next United Nations climate conference.
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 next November, was one of the world oil capitals at the beginning of the 20th century.e century. Since the 1990s, the country has also developed large oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea.
And according to information revealed last week by the British daily The Guardian, Azerbaijan plans to extract more than 49 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2033, compared to 37 billion cubic meters on an annual basis at present. Such an increase is equivalent to an increase of more than 30% in the country’s production.
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.
Transition
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 and sustained reduction of 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 Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, reacted by insisting 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 climate crisis. “I want to say that the exit from fossil fuels is inevitable, whether they like it or not. Let’s hope it doesn’t arrive too late,” he said.
The year 2023 was the hottest in human history. With an average temperature of 14.98°C, the past year was 1.48°C warmer than the climate of the pre-industrial era, the European Copernicus Observatory announced on January 9 in its annual report. The new record exceeds by a large margin (0.17°C) the previous one, although recent, from 2016.
According to the data currently available, to have a chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, global emissions would need to peak no later than 2025, then decline by at least 43 % by 2030, compared to the 2019 level. Copernicus data published last October estimate that the current climate trajectory should lead us towards exceeding the target of 1.5°C within 10 years, at the very least more.