The UN Climate Change Conference, COP29, will be held in Azerbaijan from November 11 to 22. Taking into account Azerbaijan's continuous violations of international norms and rights and negative behavior in the field of environmental protection, the holding of such a conference in Baku has raised a great wave of criticism in various countries.
Ahmad Kazemi, a well-known Iranian expert on Caucasus issues, recently published an article titled "Why Baku is not a worthy host for COP29", where he clearly pointed out why the conference should not be held in Baku. The expert first emphasized that the Climate Conference is held in countries that have a great role and serious progress in environmental protection, and Azerbaijan, on the contrary, has a very bad reputation and experience in this regard. As the first factor, Kazemi singled out the fact that Azerbaijan is the country that pollutes the Caspian Sea the most. The expert noticed that as a result of Baku's oil extractions, flora and fauna in the Caspian Sea are endangered, and oil pollution reaches the Iranian shores of the sea.
Referring to the Azerbaijani mass media, the expert noted that tens of years ago, Azerbaijan dumped the nuclear waste brought from Ukraine to Azerbaijan into the Caspian Sea, receiving 260 thousand dollars for each container.
"Due to the lack of investments in the field of sewage infrastructure, every year millions of tons of urban, domestic and industrial raw waste from the densely populated cities of Baku and Sumgait are poured into the Caspian Sea, endangering the ecosystem of that closed sea, and from Nakhijevan, the Araks River," Kazemi continued.
In addition, the expert pointed out that Baku's concerns about environmental protection are of a formal and demonstrative nature. As an example, he noted that Baku is worried about the lowering of the Caspian Sea level only because it harms oil production.
Kazemi also spoke about the ecological problems of the village of Soyudlu in Azerbaijan and the pressure exerted by the authorities on the villagers who raise them. (More details in the article "COP29 and Baku's cynicism").
According to the expert, these annual conferences are not only about "environmental protection", but also about "human rights", and Azerbaijan violates not only environmental protection laws, but also human rights. In this context, he mentioned repressions against Shia believers and national minorities in Azerbaijan. The expert noticed that Baku tries to hide this behavior by canceling international events, such as "Formula 1".
"Currently, Azerbaijan is trying to use COP29 as a tool to divert the public opinion of the world, especially the Western world, from the ethnic cleansing of the Karabakh autonomous region. On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan attacked Karabakh and violated the 2020 Moscow ceasefire agreement, causing the mass displacement and deportation of more than 120,000 indigenous Armenians and violating their property, historical, cultural and religious rights. By using the COP29 event and hosting about 80,000 people and showing a peaceful face, Baku is trying to divert world public opinion from this ethnic cleansing. That is why, along with the news about the destruction of historical and religious monuments belonging to the Armenians expelled from Karabakh, the President of Azerbaijan declared Karabakh and its surrounding areas to be "green energy" zones," Kazemi wrote.
He added that in addition to occupying Artsakh, Azerbaijan is also carrying out aggression against the Republic of Armenia, declaring its territory "Western Azerbaijan" and refusing to sign a peace treaty. In parallel, Azerbaijan is advancing the issue of the so-called "Zangezur Corridor", which in turn, according to the expert, will be disastrous for the environment of the region. "Against this background, Baku's hosting of COP29 is a bitter irony to international environmental laws," Kazemi said.
As a conclusion, Ahmad Kazemi emphasized that this conference is being held in Baku thanks to Azerbaijan's petrodollars, but in reality, Azerbaijan is not a worthy host for holding the UN Climate Change Conference.
