Germany accuses Azerbaijan of backing oil and gasoline hijack of COP29

Unlock the Editor’s Digest at no cost

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.

Germany has accused COP29 host Azerbaijan of backing an try by fossil gasoline producing international locations to hijack the world’s most necessary local weather summit as talks ran virtually a day late. 

Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s international affairs minister, warned {that a} “few fossil fuel states” have been making an attempt a “geopolitical power play” in Baku, the place virtually 200 international locations are debating a brand new local weather finance purpose and easy methods to make progress on the shift away from oil, gasoline and coal.

A number of folks concerned within the talks informed the Monetary Instances that international locations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia have been making an attempt to dam any references to advancing final yr’s settlement to transition away from fossil fuels. 

“It is clear who is pulling the strings of the COP29 presidency,” stated one negotiator.

The UN local weather summit has been overshadowed by Donald Trump’s US presidential victory. His election has stoked fears that international local weather motion could be rolled again in a yr that’s anticipated to be the most popular on document.

Talking in Baku, Baerbock stated oil and gasoline producing nations have been enjoying a sport on the “backs of the poorest and most vulnerable countries”.

“We as the European Union will not accept a deal that comes at the expense of those who suffer most from the climate crisis,” she stated. 

“We will not allow the most vulnerable to be ripped off by the few fossil fuel producing countries, who at this moment have the backing of the COP29 presidency.”

Azerbaijan depends on fossil fuels for export earnings to assist its financial system whereas Ilham Aliyev, its president, even praised the nation’s “God-given” oil and gasoline in speeches through the opening days of COP29. 

The COP29 presidency group, led by ecology and pure sources minister Mukhtar Babayev, declined to remark. Saudi Arabia didn’t reply to a request for remark and an individual near Russia’s delegation stated that they had no remark.

Final week, G20 international locations didn’t make express point out of dumping fossil fuels within the leaders’ declaration at a gathering in Rio de Janeiro. In New York in September, Saudi Arabia and different oil and gasoline producers have been additionally accused of making an attempt to dam a reference to fossil fuels within the so-called UN Pact for the Future. 

In Baku, rich western international locations are below hearth over a proposal for $250bn in local weather finance that was branded insufficient and insulting by poorer international locations.

Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomèz, Panama’s head of delegation, stated the EU was enjoying “game[s]” by guaranteeing the negotiations dragged on.

“This is what they always do,” he stated on Saturday. “They break us at the last minute . . . they push and push it and push it until the negotiators leave, until we’re tired, until we’re delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.”

That finance purpose, which is geared toward serving to growing international locations shift to inexperienced power and adapt to a warming world, was anticipated to be elevated to $300bn in negotiations on Saturday night.

However within the stadium the place the summit is happening, protesters chanted “No deal is better than a bad deal” and urged the G77 group of growing nations to stroll away. The G77 has referred to as for at the least $500bn in finance. 

Baerbock rejected the criticism of the low provide, arguing that no sum of money could be sufficient with out emission reductions.