The Chief Executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team appears to have used his role to encourage a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals, according to a report by the BBC.

Elnur Soltanov, a senior official at the COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan, appeared in a secret recording showing him discussing ‘investment opportunities’ in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

“We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed,” Soltanov said in the video recording.

A former head of the UN body responsible for the climate talks commented on the video, telling the BBC that Soltanov’s actions were “completely unacceptable” and a “betrayal” of COP process and integrity.

As well as being the sitting Chief Executive of COP29, Elnur Soltanov also serves as the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of SOCAR, the country’s state-owned oil and gas company.

According to US figures, oil and gas accounts for about half of Azerbaijan’s total economy and more than 90% of its exports.

The secret video recordings shown to the BBC were made by the human rights organisation Global Witness. It is believed that one of Global Witness’s representatives approached the COP29 team posing as the head of a fictitious Hong Kong investment firm specialising in energy.

The representative claimed this company was interested in sponsoring the COP29 summit, but in return wanted to discuss investment opportunities in Azerbaijan’s state energy firm, SOCAR. An online meeting with Soltanov was arranged.

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”.

But he then stated he was open to discussions about deals too, including oil and gas deals, speaking of opportunities related to Azerbaijan’s plans to increase gas production, including new pipeline infrastructure.

“There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established,” Soltanov says on the recording. “SOCAR is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia,” adding that “we will have a certain amount of oil and natural gas being produced, perhaps forever.”

COP29 opens in Baku on Monday November 11th and is the 29th annual UN climate summit, where governments will further discuss how to limit and prepare for global climate change.

Its code of conduct for COP officials states they are “expected to act without bias, prejudice, favouritism, caprice, self-interest, preference or deference, strictly based on sound, independent and fair judgement”.

Previous COP climate change conferences have received criticism for not including human population growth as a key discussion topic. Campaigners have argued repeatedly that human overpopulation is one of the predominant drivers of climate change and that any credible plan for achieving net zero must include action to address population growth.

Not only does the issue of human overpopulation appear to have been dismissed for another year, the credibility of COP29 has been seriously damaged by the emergency of Elnur Soltanov’s secret discussion on potential fossil fuel deals.

Soltanov appeared eager to take things further, telling the potential sponsor: “I would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [SOCAR] so that they can start discussions.” A couple of weeks later the fake Hong Kong investment company received an email advising that SOCAR wanted to follow up on the lead.

Attempting to do business deals as part of the COP process is understood to be a serious breach of the standards of conduct expected of a COP official, with COP events focused on reducing the world’s use of fossil fuels, not selling more.

It’s understood the BBC has asked Azerbaijan’s COP29 team and SOCAR for comment and that neither has responded to the requests.

Submitted by Friends of Retha


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