He is anointed with oil
The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), an annual conference on climate change where world leaders meet to discuss how much we have suffered. indeed there is, it has long been revealed to be a hoax.
The grip the oil industry has had on lobbyists and participating countries was made painfully clear last year when conference leader and Emirati oil chief Sultan Al Jaber said there was “no science” to cutting fuel to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees. Celsius, an absurd and self-serving claim that seems to defy decades of scientific evidence.
And this year’s COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan seems to be different. Secret recording obtained by BBC shows Elnur Soltanov, the chief executive officer of the COP29 delegation – who is also the Asian country’s deputy energy minister and chief executive of the national oil and gas company Socar – discussing “investment opportunities.”
“We have many gas fields yet to be developed,” he is heard saying in the video.
Call the COPs
Soltanov was trying to persuade an undercover representative of the human rights watchdog Global Witness, who told the oil executive that he represented the interests of a fictional Hong Kong oil and gas company.
“I would be happy to build a connection between your team and their team [Socar] to start negotiations,” Soltanov told the fake oil company.
None of this should surprise us. Azerbaijan’s economy is heavily dependent on oil, which accounts for 90 percent of its workforce.
Naturally, the UN body reacted angrily, it said BBC that Soltanov’s blatant interest in advancing oil and gas investments was “absolutely unacceptable” and “treasonous.”
Christiana Figueres, who oversaw the signing of the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, told BBC that Soltanov’s behavior was “contrary and bad” for the purpose of the annual conferences, and “treasonous.”
Last year’s COP28 conference turned into an unproductive circus, as it were BBC it was revealed at the time, with the United Arab Emirates using scheduled meetings for “private” oil and gas business negotiations.
In other words, calling these conferences to “measure progress and discuss international responses to climate change” is in many ways misleading and absurd.
The kind of investment Soltanov is promoting, after all, directly contradicts the pledges nations made at last year’s climate change conference when they agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.
In short, COP29 feels like just a forum for oil and gas executives to get new deals – and world leaders have repeatedly made empty promises without meaningful action.
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