Rights critics condemn Azerbaijan's COP29 host role

Much is at stake at the UN climate conference in Bakum yet Azerbaijan's ruler is pushing ahead with investments in oil and gas. Critics often end up in prison or exile.

In August 2014, Azerbaijani investigative journalist and human rights activist Emin Huseynov feared for his freedom and his life, when a government crackdown on reporters began.

"When they started first [the] repression against all of us, most of my colleagues [were] jailed," said the 44-year-old.

A prominent critic of Azerbaijan's authoritarian ruler Ilham Aliyev, Huseynov had previously been badly beaten by police. When the repression started in 2014, he sought protection in the Swiss Embassy in Baku, the capital of the former Soviet republic bounded by the Caspian Sea and Caucasus Mountains.

Now Huseynov lives in exile. He cannot go back to his homeland for fear of ending up in prison like the dozens of other government critics and environmental activists currently behind bars in Azerbaijan.

NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said repression has worsened in the tiny petrostate over the past two years. The group urged the European Union to spotlight the "deteriorating human rights situation" when world leaders descend upon Baku for the COP29 conference to discuss climate action and fair financing for global climate protection.

As host and lead negotiator, Azerbaijan says it wants to promote the goals of the historic Paris Agreement. It will focus on compliance with the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) temperature limit, more climate protection, financial support for developing countries and climate justice, according to official documents sent to the nearly 200 participating states.

Oil and gas are 'a gift from God'

Traditionally, the climate conference host acts as a kind of mediator in negotiations and can set the tone of the talks. Azerbaijan's president Aliyev has already made clear where his priorities might lie at the negotiating table.

"I have always said that having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It's a gift from God," Aliyev told Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and chancellor Olaf Scholzat the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin in April.

At the meeting, Aliyev said he would defend the right of countries to invest in and promote fossil fuels as a way to help drive his country's prosperity and fight poverty.

The COP host's electricity mix is made up of 93% fossil fuels. Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent scientific project, has given Azerbaijan the worst possible rating for climate protection, on par with other oil countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran.

"Huge investments are being made in fossil fuels and climate protection measures are minimal," said Niklas Höhne from the New Climate Institute, an NGO based in Cologne, Germany. The country also does not have a zero-emissions target.

COP host 'doesn't care' about climate

COP hosting duties normally rotate among states in the five United Nations regional groups: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean, as well as Western European and other countries.

"The climate negotiations will only succeed if we have a strong and very credible presidency," said Niklas Höhne. Azerbaijan has advertised itself as better than it is when it comes to climate protection and "that is not a good start," added the climate policy expert.

Despite its fossil fuel reliance, Azerbaijan's potential for solar and wind energy, and to produce green hydrogen for export is huge, according to CAT. While there has been some investment in renewables, the potential is barely being exploited. The organization estimates that the country's emissions will increase by as much as 20% in the coming years.

"He doesn't care about the climate," said exiled reporter Huseynov of the country's leader Aliyev, adding that the president is more concerned with using the international conference to legitimize his rule. He is "trying to use this important climate change event for whitewashing [his] toxic political image," said the human rights activist.

In February, Aliyev secured a landslide victory following snap elections, which OSCE observers described as restrictive and undemocratic. Huseynov said the country's population is "still in poverty even [if] oil and gas exports give billions to the country."

Gas rush and influential oil managers

Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan's environment minister and former sustainability officer at the state oil company SOCAR, will chair this year's climate negotiations.

Powerful figures from the oil and gas industry presiding over climate conferences is nothing new. Sultan Ahmad al-Jaber, an executive at United Arab Emirates' state oil and gas company ADNOC, chaired the 2023 conference in Dubai. French energy group TotalEnergies and ADNOC recently bought a 30% equity stake in an Azerbaijani gas field in the Caspian. Oil and gas account for 90% of the country's exports.

Most of those exports go to the EU, with Russia's war in Ukraine bolstering energy ties between the bloc and Azerbaijan. When Azerbaijan seized full control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region following a military assault and expelled over 100,000 Armenians last year, the EU criticized the move. But it continues to rely on Azerbaijan's gas, even if the petrostate is a minor oil and gas player compared to Saudi Arabia, China, and the USA.

Environment activists and journalists in danger

Away from the negotiations at the UN climate summit in Baku, the situation for government critics and environmentalists on the ground is bad. HRW says climate protests are violently suppressed, and activists are arrested on fictitious grounds.

In April, for example, police arrested human rights and climate activist Anar Mammadli outside a kindergarten for alleged smuggling of counterfeit cash. Just before his arrest, Mammadli co-founded an initiative to campaign for civil rights and climate justice in Azerbaijan, said HRW. He's still in prison.

Reprisals against critics have been intensifying ahead of the climate conference, said HRW. As has brutality against journalists. "Some of the colleagues are not only tortured in the prisons, they are murdered," said Huseynov, adding that Aliyev does not want independent voices to speak to the international media.

Azerbaijan also imposed entry bans on four German lawmakers for criticizing its human rights record. Huseynov has called on world leaders to exert pressure on the country's ruler by linking their attendance at the climate conference to the release of political prisoners.

The activist himself was only allowed to leave the Swiss embassy and the country through foreign political pressure. Ahead of the 2015 European Games in Baku, the Swiss government successfully demanded Huseynov's release. In the meantime, many other government critics remain in prison in Azerbaijan.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins and Sarah Steffen

Translation: Jennifer Collins