Upon arriving in Azerbaijan two weekends ago to attend the United Nations’ COP29 Climate Summit with my colleagues at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), I had no idea who the President was of this small, former Soviet Republic, and now independent nation, hosting this annual event.
I sure do now.
His name is Ilham Aliyev, and my ‘o my did he make a splash this week at the summit.
The president’s statements and other features of this remote host nation raise several ironies about this year’s climate summit.
President Aliyev stated on Tuesday, the 2nd day of the summit, that oil and natural gas are a “gift of God.” “Oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all… are natural resources and countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market, because the market needs them.” The president also criticized “western fake news.”
He sounded downright “Trumpian,” as President-elect Donald Trump has similarly described oil as “liquid gold” and coined the term “fake news” to describe much of the U.S. national news media.
Those truth nuggets from President Aliyev dropped like lead balloons on the conference organizers, starting with the biggest climate hysteric on campus, UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who criticized the “doubling down on fossil fuels.”
In other words, no dissent from the climate groupthink is tolerated, even from the president of the host country.
It struck me as very odd last year when I heard that the COP29 Climate Summit would be held in Baku, which is the capital of this developing country and is heavily dependent on its oil and natural gas deposits. As with the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE), the host of the COP28 summit in 2023, the UN agenda appears to showcase that even oil nations “get it,” when it comes to the international climate change narrative that fossil fuels must be phased out.
Except of course, when the host nation’s president blurts out the obvious benefit of traditional sources of energy which are steadily prospering its citizenry.
Oil and natural gas are abundant in Azerbaijan, a nation of just 86,000 square miles, comparable in size to the state of Maine. These energy sources comprise one-third of the country’s gross domestic product and 90% of its exports. Government and foreign investment in the nation’s energy sector has led to growing sectors in manufacturing, retail, trade, transportation and hospitality, according to the International Energy Agency.
The dominance of the oil and gas sector in Azerbaijan was immediately apparent to us, as we made our way to the climate summit. The CFACT team ended up staying at a cheaper, out of the way hotel in the opposite direction from the summit location to downtown Baku.
As we taxied to the climate event, we passed miles upon miles of small oil rigs moving up and down, and miles of exposed pipeline transporting the extracted fuel for the country’s citizens, businesses and export markets. Suddenly, I spotted a COP29 makeshift display, directly in front of one of the many oil fields, and worthy of a photo-op to capture the irony.
It turns out that residing in a hotel on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, and away from the impressive architecture and prosperity of downtown Baku, you see the tangible reality of what upholds the nation itself: oil and gas.
Since Azerbaijan became an independent nation in 1991, its poverty rate has dramatically fallen while its natural resource development and exports expanded, and its private economy burgeoned (though oil and gas industries remain mostly under government control). According to the State Statistical Committee, the nation achieved a significant decrease in the poverty rate from more than 61% in 1995 to just below 5% by 2019.
According to the Human Development Index, a report of the UN Development Programme that ranks nations on measures of health, access to education and standard of living, Azerbaijan for 2023-24, ranks number 76, equivalent to Brazil, Peru and Colombia.
Somehow, I don’t think President Aliyev is losing any sleep if his nation falls short of its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 35% by 2030, nor will the average global temperature otherwise deviate one scintilla from where it is naturally headed.
With its copious “liquid gold” underground, Azerbaijan may or may not end up like the wealthy UAE, but it is clearly heading in the right direction with falling poverty and rising living standards.
President Ilham Aliyev would obviously like to continue in that positive direction, regardless of how many UN bureaucrats and international grifters cry wolf over climate.
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy