Azerbaijan has chosen Mukhtar Babayev, the current Ecology Minister, to lead the upcoming global climate talks, COP29, scheduled to take place later this year in Baku.
Before joining the government, Babayev had over two decades of experience at the state oil and gas company.
The COP28 presidency account on X has announced Babayev’s appointment as the president-designate for COP29, along with Yalchin Rafiyev being named the lead negotiator for the climate summit.
Babayev’s professional background includes working at the state energy company Socar from 1994 until 2018, as indicated by his LinkedIn profile.
While his position as ecology minister positions him as a conventional choice to lead the talks, his background in the oil industry may resurrect the discussion about the influence of fossil fuel interests in the COP process.
Azerbaijan, a significant birthplace of the oil industry, marks the third consecutive oil and gas exporter to host the talks, following the United Arab Emirates last year and Egypt in 2022.
The appointment of Sultan Al Jaber as COP28 president faced widespread criticism because he retained his role as the chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
However, Al Jaber ultimately played a key role in negotiating the initial COP agreement, advocating for the transition away from all fossil fuels.
The COP28 conference in Dubai saw unprecedented involvement from the oil and gas industry, surpassing any previous iteration of the annual climate talks.
This included a landmark agreement among over fifty oil companies committing to slash methane emissions from their operations to nearly zero by the decade’s end.
[…] COP29, to be held in Baku, is pivotal for the global South, focusing notably on finance. The conference aims to establish a new collective climate finance target, surpassing the $100 billion mark set in 2009. This target must reflect the needs and priorities of developing nations. […]