Baku: Azerbaijan’s Baku , host of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in November may end up setting the tone on two critical global issues–global conflict and climate finance .
Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan is pursuing a peace deal with Armenia, but the big question is whether it can use its unique position geographically, and status as a petro-state in transition, to achieve an ambitious climate deal? Top diplomat and Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev believes so.
“COP29 Azerbaijan’s Presidency is a result of the peace building process between Armenia and Azerbaijan which is through silent diplomacy. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed that we can surprise the world,” said Hajiyev.
Now, Azerbaijan wants to shape negotiations as a “Truce COP.” “We are working on the truce cop concept and we wish to avoid blaming each other during negotiations. The world is divided but the climate issue is different. On geopolitical issues they may be on different pages but nobody is immune from the climate crisis. Here we see Russia and the West working together,” Hajiyev added.
“For example, Russia’s Taiga forests are a huge absorbent of global carbon and if Russia protects them it can be a huge help,” he said. Azerbaijan is borrowing heavily from the Non-Aligned Movement philosophy to develop its strategy. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was founded in 1961 with the view to advancing the interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation. Hajiyev said there is a kind of a “cold war conundrum” currently, referring to various blocs and hostilities globally. Azerbaijan was the chair of NAM in 2019. “It’s India’s philosophy and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy. We wish to use it further to say we are a group that believes that a third way is possible. We are not part of the conflict,” he said.
It’s easier said than done. Though the UN negotiations give a level playing field to all countries, the US has been seen as a climate bully and over the years there has been a deep trust deficit between developing and rich countries .
Among deliverables for COP29, the agreement on the New Collective Quantified Goal, to replace the existing goal of $100 billion per year and operationalising of the Loss and Damage fund are key. The new finance goal is meant to channel more funds towards urgently needed climate action in developing countries. Even as Hajiyev puts together the Baku strategy, complications are emerging at the Bonn climate change conference, being held at the halfway point to the annual climate summit. HT reported on May 6 that major differences are emerging again between rich and developing countries on who should contribute to the new quantified goal on climate finance. In an Ad Hoc Work Programme (AHWP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Cartagena in Colombia from April 23 to 26, the US is reported to have said the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) is “voluntary” for those that “choose to pay.” At Bonn, according to the International Institute of Sustainable Development, China underscored developed countries’ obligations to support developing countries’ climate action and called the definition of the NCQG “almost a decade overdue.” Morocco called the NCQG “a beacon of hope” for vulnerable communities and cautioned against “taking it hostage” by discussing elements beyond the core mandate. Ecuador called on developed countries to make proposals regarding the quantum of the goal. The Marshall Islands said loans at market rates cannot be considered climate finance.
The Third World Network, a non profit international research and advocacy organisation focusing on North-South affairs reported from Bonn on Thursday that delegates from developing countries pointed to the erosion of differentiation between developed and developing countries with similar mitigation goals being imposed on all Parties.
This is a complex web of issues for Baku to manoeuvre on getting a finance deal. “It is a particular deliverable for us but we are not giving any particular figure immediately. The other important focus for us are the small island developing countries because for them the crisis is urgent,” added Hajiyev.
A climate COP where some of the earliest oil wells were drilled
Baku was home to among the world’s first oil fields. In 1847-1848, the first production of industrial oil started from the dug wells in Bibieybat and later Balakhany fields according to the government. The early 19th century was characterized by the first production of oil from the manual well dug at Bibieybat 30 meters away from the seashore. The first oil refinery was constructed in Baku in 1859. And in many ways oil helped Azerbaijan tide over internal and external crises and build the country that is today.
Azerbaijan President, Ilham Aliyev, on Tuesday recalled how the country has managed to overcome several internal and external crises following independence in 1991 including civil war and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia, due to its fossil fuel reserves. He was speaking at the 29th Caspian Oil and Gas exhibition at the Baku Energy Week.
Now the country wants to move forward.
“It is not easy, but we are ready for that… we are not to blame for having oil and gas… We must be judged not for having these resources, but for how we manage them, how we transform this wealth through the channels, how we build an inclusive society, and reduce poverty from 50% to 5% and foreign debt from almost 100% to 7.7%,” he said in his speech.
“COP29 in Azerbaijan demonstrates a diplomatic carriage and also an opportunity for green transition. Azerbaijan is a fossil fuel exporting country but fossil fuels were used for the welfare of the population and development of this country…On the export issue there is a tendency to think that oil and gas are ony pollutants we have. So far the renewable world is not in a capacity to produce renewables that will meet our needs, robust storage capacity is not there. Fossil fuels are not only about combustion engines but it has applications in hundreds of areas. If you manage carbon emissions well, oil and gas is part of our life,” Hajiyev added.
Azerbaijan is working on energy transition and diversification. Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar and SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, launched three major solar and wind projects in Azerbaijan with a capacity of 1 GW last week. Azerbaijan is also developing a green port and a net zero township at Alat.
East-West trade using the Middle Corridor was small until Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022. In the two years since then, the potential of the Middle Corridor has expanded significantly, the Caspian Policy Center reported. The focus of Baku port is to maximise Azerbaijan’s transit capacity and revive it like it used to be, an important hub on the Silk Route. The Suez Canal would continue to be the main trade route, but the corridor will act as a supplement, officials said.
The proposed logistics hub can serve around 140 million people within 1000 km radius. According to Taleh Ziyadov, director general of Port of Baku, the Middle Corridor has gained importance in recent years because of conflict in Russia and in Israel. This corridor, -a mix of land travel and shipping route over Caspian Sea, avoids Russia and Iran. The corridor can connect India also to Europe. In order to diversify further, Azerbaijan is developing Alat as a net-zero emissions free economic zone to attract residents from different parts of the world. “We see it as a city for people who wish to eat sustainable food, live with low carbon footprint, engage in trade and essentially a very high quality life,” Ziyadov added.
(The reporter was part of a South-Asia media delegation invited to Azerbaijan by COP29 team)
