COP-29 starts on Monday 11^th November as the world leaders arrive in Baku following a year which is considered to be the warmest year on record. The latest edition of the most important meeting on climate change is being held by Azerbaijan a country built on oil from the Caspian Sea and proud of its history.

In the precursor to the mega event in Azerbaijan, BBC released a sting operation report which contained COP CEO Elnur Soltanov discussing about facilitation of a fossil fuel deal with the Azerbaijan Government. Elnur Soltanov was recorded secretly by an activist who pretended to be an investor seeking opportunities to sponsor the COP-29 meeting in Baku.

“We found similar evidence last year, which was held in UAE. Obviously, it cast a shadow over the conference. But last year in Dubai there were some major consequential agreements. So obviously the COP can progress. But it’s not the note on which world would like to progress.” Said Justin Rowlatt climate editor at BBC.

The Conference of Parties (COP) is the world’s most influential meeting on climate change by countries that have ratified a treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The treaties are like pledges which take the formal legal form such as The Paris Agreement, however, there are no mechanisms to enforce these or no penalties involved. The Paris Agreement plans to hold the Global Increase in Temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It underlines the need to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. During COP28, in Dubai member countries agreed to move away from fossil fuels but did not specify when and how they are planning to do so. There was another pledge to submit the national voluntary goal every 5 years from 2015. These documents are detailed and include plans on how to reduce Green House Gases and phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles. These pledges hint at the government and policymakers’ approach and ambitions to shape favourable policies and seek investment in climate finance.

However, critics argue that these pledges do not make much difference considering the attitude of world leaders. The newly elected US President had been a denier of climate change. Dominic Kavakeb, Co-Director of Campaigns, Global Witness told BBC that there was concern around the effectiveness of COP29 in pursuing the necessary climate action. Instead, it precariously plays a role in furthering oil and gas deals considering that last year it was held in UAE and this year Azerbaijan both of which had an illustrious history in oil and gas trading. Oil and gas make up 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports. It wants to expand its natural gas production by up to a third in the next decade. So there tends to be scepticism about the country’s commitment to climate change and irony about it hosting the most important global climate summit.

“We set up a fake oil and gas investment company and got in contact with COP29 dangling the prospect of sponsoring COP29 and in an alarmingly short space of time we found ourselves on a call with Elnur Soltanov, Chief Executive of COP-29, also Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan and a Board Member of The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). Which itself sounds like a conflict of interest,” said Dominic Kavakeb of Global Witness “Mr Soltanov brazenly offered to connect us with the contact at SOCAR. He was very open with our undercover investigator. In our subsequent emails, they agreed to include an agreement within the sponsorship contract that there would be no sustainability measures that we would be forced to sign as a company.”

The latest data of European Copernicus Climate Change Service project 2024 to most likely end up with global average temperature at least 1.55C hotter than pre-industrial times. First complete calendar year to breach 1.5 C warming, the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Pre-industrial refers to the period before the Industrial Revolution of the early nineteenth century when human beings began to burn excessive fossil fuel.