The spotlight is on Azerbaijan, as the small South Caucasus petro-state hosts the UN’s biggest climate conference.

Diplomats from around the world will travel to the capital Baku for the annual climate summit, known as COP29, to discuss how to avoid growing climate-related threats. climate change in a place that was one of the cradles of the oil industry.

It was in Baku where the world’s first oil fields were developed in 1846 and where Azerbaijan was the world leader in oil production in 1899.

Sandwiched between Iran to the south and Russia to the north, Azerbaijan lies on the Caspian Sea and was part of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991. Almost all of Azerbaijan’s exports consist of oil and gas, two of the world’s main sources of global warming. carbon dioxide emissions. President Ilham Aliyev described them in April as a “gift from the gods.”

Aliyev is the authoritarian leader of Azerbaijan. He is the son of the former president and has been in power for more than two decades, overseeing a crackdown on free speech and civil society. Azerbaijani authorities did not grant Associated Press permission to report in the country ahead of the conference.

Aliyev said it was a “great honor” for Azerbaijan to host the conference. He also said he wants his country to use more renewable energy at home so it can export more oil and gas abroad.

In metal cages next to the Azerbaijan Aquatic Palace sports venue are pump attendants – a sign says they extract just over 2 tonnes of oil a day. Others pump elsewhere, sucking up oil within sight of one of Baku’s religious and tourist sites, the Bibi Heybat mosque, rebuilt in the 1990s after being destroyed by the Bolsheviks nearly 80 years ago.

Aliyev said he considered Azerbaijan hosting the COP to be “a sign of respect” from the international community and recognition of what Azerbaijan is doing in green energy.

Some of these plans involve the development of hydroelectric, solar and wind projects in Karabakh, a region populated by ethnic Armenians who fled to Armenia after a blitzkrieg military offensive by Azerbaijan in September 2023.

Aliyev said in a speech in March that his country was in the “active phase of green transition”, but added that “no one can ignore the fact that without fossil fuels the world cannot develop, at least in a foreseeable future”.

Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s environment minister and former vice president of state energy company Socar, will chair the negotiations. Babayev said in April that he wanted to show how this “oil and gas country of the past” can show the world a green path with its efforts to develop renewable energy, particularly wind power.

He said he believed his country’s COP summit should build on last year’s deal move away from fossil fuels and pave the way for countries to come together in 2025 around strengthened and funded plans to combat greenhouse gases.

But many people doubt these commitments.

Several organizations say Azerbaijan’s commitment to the green energy transition amounts to greenwashing – giving the impression that the country is doing more than it is to combat climate change.

While many countries, including the United States and the United Arab Emirates – last year’s hosts – grapple with the challenges of transitioning away from fossil fuels, Azerbaijan has historically not been proactive in this regard, said Kate Watters, executive director of Crude Accountability, which monitors environmental issues in the Caspian Sea region.

Environmental monitoring in Azerbaijan is dangerous, she said, referring to a crackdown on civil society that has effectively stifled any real opposition and led to the arrest of people.

There is no effective mechanism in Azerbaijan for residents to sound the alarm about exposure to pollutants from the oil and gas industry, Watters said. She cited health problems such as rashes and illnesses that residents living near the Sangachal oil and gas terminal, just outside Baku, may experience, but said their concerns are not being heard.

Azerbaijani government officials did not respond to numerous requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Babayev pointed out that Azerbaijan is experiencing higher than normal temperatures and said he wants states to unite to improve plans to stop gas emissions that contribute to global warming. But his country has been criticized for not taking strict measures in this regard.

An analysis by Global Witness, a non-profit organization, found that the volume of gas flared at oil and gas facilities in Azerbaijan has increased by 10.5% since 2018.