For the second year in a row, the United Nations climate summit known as COP will take place in a petrostate.
COP29 will be in Baku, Azerbaijan, and overseen by Mukhtar Babayev, who worked for more than two decades at Socar, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company.
There’s a precedent: Last year’s climate summit was controversially hosted by the United Arab Emirates and led by Sultan Al Jaber, who also runs the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
It remains to be seen whether Babayev, a former low-ranking executive who is now Azerbaijan’s environment minister, will have the same impact.
But there is also a poignant historical resonance to COP29: By some measures, Azerbaijan is where the modern oil industry began.
Persons:
Mukhtar Babayev, There’s, Sultan Al Jaber, Al Jaber’s, COP28
Organizations:
United Arab, Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
Locations:
United Nations, Baku, Azerbaijan, Socar, Azerbaijan’s, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi