New climate financing initiatives are central to an action plan unveiled by the host country of the upcoming COP29 climate summit. A voluntary fund tagged with a US$1 billion target to be met by canvassing support from fossil-fuel producing companies and countries has been listed as a priority by Azerbaijan.
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In a letter on Tuesday addressed to about 200 states and other organisations due to participate in the annual summit in capital city Baku, COP29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev highlighted a fund that will be made up of voluntary contributions, to “catalyse the public and private sectors across mitigation, adaptation, and research and development”.
Called the Climate Finance Action Fund, it is one of the initiatives that the presidency is pushing for. The fund, unveiled earlier in July, is meant to supplement efforts to set a new financial target – the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) – under the Paris Agreement to support developing countries in their climate actions by 2025.
Azerbaijan is due to announce its own contributions to the fund, which was not detailed in the letter.
Apart from the fund, Babayev, in the letter, said he is spearheading a second climate financing instrument called The Baku Initiative for Climate Finance, Investment and Trade, that focuses on green investments.
Energy storage and grids, as well as methane reduction were also part of the priority items he listed in the “action agenda”, while observers note that mention of the gradual end of fossil fuel use in energy systems – part of an agreement to last year’s landmark pact in Dubai – was conspicuously missing.
The burning of fossil fuels is the single biggest contributor to climate change.
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The initiatives omit any reference to the phase-out of or even the gradual transition away from fossil fuels. Instead, it centres around a fund that benefits the fossil fuel industry.
Andreas Sieber, policy and campaigns associate director, 350.org
“The initiatives omit any reference to the phase-out of or even the gradual transition away from fossil fuels. Instead, it centres around a fund that benefits the fossil fuel industry,” said Andreas Sieber, policy and campaigns associate director at nonprofit 350.org.
“The Azerbaijan COP presidency is sending a message that the door is wide open for oil and gas deals for continuous exploitation of the planet and the most vulnerable communities.”
Greenwashing at COP29?
In the letter, Babayev, who is also the minister of ecology in Azerbaijan and a former vice-president at state-owned oil and gas company Socar, highlighted priorities such as a sixfold increase in battery storage capacity, expansion and strengthening of grid networks and cuts in emissions from methane.
A “COP truce”, from seven days before to seven days after the summit, was also proposed by Babayev, as the gathering in Baku takes place against a backdrop of war in Gaza and in Ukraine.
Babayev’s message noted that the agenda “confronts the world’s most pressing climate problems, shines a light on forgotten priorities, and provides a focus for wide universe of actors to come together”.
“It also reflects Azerbaijan’s own capabilities and unique contributions to the fight against climate change…It represents an ambitious effort by the COP29 presidency to drive action across all climate pillars and covers a range of key priorities, such as energy, finance, agriculture, cities, human development, and the climate-peace nexus, among others,” the letter read.
The COP29 action agenda letter was sent four days after the first three climate conference sponsors were revealed, including Socar Green, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s national oil company.
State-owned Socar ranks one of the lowest among oil and gas companies in the world in terms of its climate credentials, according to nonprofit World Benchmarking Alliance’s report last year. Out of 99 firms, its researchers put Socar in the 91st spot.
The creation of Socar Green was announced a few weeks after the country was appointed as COP host in December, fuelling suspicions of greenwash. Although the oil firm’s subsidiary promises investments in solar and wind projects, green hydrogen production, and carbon capture and storage, the main company itself has no clean energy transition plan.
Socar also has no emission reduction targets and no commitment to support human rights although it has a “low-carbon development strategy” aimed at reducing methane emissions from its natural gas facilities, based on its latest company report.
“Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency is raising serious concerns of whether it is really committed to the energy transition,” said Sieber.
“By announcing Socar’s greenwashing arm as a key sponsor of COP29 and rolling out 14 initiatives that conspicuously avoid any mention of fossil fuels and sideline the tripling of renewable energy, Azerbaijan demonstrates ignorance and a lack of leadership,” he said.
