PARIS: Azerbaijan has named minister and former oil executive Mukhtar Babayev as president of the COP29 climate conference to be held in November in Baku, an official told AFP today.
The nomination makes 2024 the second year in a row that global climate talks are to be led by a man with deep oil industry ties.
Babayev, currently minister for ecology and natural resources and formerly an executive at state oil company Socar, “has been named president-designate for the 29th session of the conference of the parties”, senior ministry official Rashad Allahverdiyev told AFP.
Last year’s COP28 hosted by the UAE was presided by Sultan Al Jaber, chief of the national Adnoc oil company.
An accord reached in Dubai in December nevertheless called for the first time for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner”.