A senior official for the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Azerbaijan appears to have used his position as chief executive of COP29 to set up meetings with potential investors in the Azerbaijani oil and gas industries.
Azerbaijan's energy production accounts for 60% of the nation's economy. Elnur Soltanov, deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and chief executive of COP29, was secretly recorded discussing "investment opportunities" in the state-owned fossil fuel company, the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).
"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed," he says.
Soltanov was part of a media sting set up by an international anti-corruption group known as Global Witness. They created a fictitious company that professed to be interested in investing in SOCAR.
"SOCAR Trading is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia. To me, these are the possibilities to explore. But in any case this is something that you need to be talking to SOCAR, and I would be happy to create a contact between yourself and them," Soltanov was recorded as telling the fake company representative.
SOCAR then reached out to the fake oil and gas investment group and expressed interest in a meeting, Global Witness said.
During the meeting, Soltanov told the potential sponsor that the aim of the conference was "solving the climate crisis" and "transitioning away from hydrocarbons in a just, orderly and equitable manner".
Anyone, he said, including oil and gas companies, "could come with solutions" because Azerbaijan’s "doors are open".
However, he said he was open to discussions about deals too – including on oil and gas.
Initially, Soltanov suggested the potential sponsor might be interested in investing in some of the "green transitioning projects" Socar was involved in - but then spoke of opportunities related to Azerbaijan's plans to increase gas production, including new pipeline infrastructure.
Last year, another petro-state tried to use its position as sponsor of the COP28 to drum up a little business for their country.
"If this is the second year in a row where petro-states have been able to take on the presidency and have been able to use (their) position as president to further fossil fuel interests, then I think that does raise huge questions for the U.N. and the kind of rules and guidelines in place for how countries go about in carrying out this presidency," said Simon Roach, a senior investigator with Global Witness.
The phrase is "endemic corruption on a planetary scale." More from the BBC:
Attempting to do business deals as part of the COP process appears to be a serious breach of the standards of conduct expected of a COP official.
These events are supposed to be about reducing the world's use of fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change – not selling more.
The standards are set by the UN body responsible for the climate negotiations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The UN said it could not comment directly on our findings but remarked that "the same rigorous standards" are applied to whoever hosts the conference, and that those standards reflect "the importance of impartiality on the part of all presiding officers".
World leaders usually flock to the annual COP meeting. They get to hobnob with celebrities and bask in the glow of fake altruism.
But the sheen might have come off COP meetings. Several world leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be in attendance when the meeting gets underway on Monday.
Scholz has a pretty good excuse. His ruling coalition just collapsed. The others probably sense the imminent demise of the climate change gravy train with the ascension of climate skeptic Donald Trump to the White House.
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