BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose country is due to host the COP29 summit on climate change in October, said on Friday that his country is committed to the green energy transition, but that the world cannot abandon fossil fuels in the near future.
In a speech in Baku, Aliyev said: “Azerbaijan, as I said, is in the active phase of green transition, but at the same time, no one can ignore the fact that without fossil fuel, the world cannot develop, at least in the foreseeable future.”
In his remarks, he described Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency as an “honour” that showed his country was serious about combating climate change.
He said that Azerbaijan was voluntarily choosing to transition towards renewable energy, even as its proven reserves of oil and gas were enough to last a century.
Azerbaijan is a major oil and gas producer that is key to the European Union’s plans to reduce its dependency on Russian energy imports.
Baku’s bid received approval in December from nearly 200 countries, including longtime adversary Armenia, with which it is currently engaged in peace talks to end a conflict which has lasted more than three decades.
The United Arab Emirates, the host of last year’s COP28 summit, previously came under criticism for its own major oil and gas sector and high carbon emissions.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku, Writing by Felix Light in Tbilisi, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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