"Fact" daily writes:
There is very little time left for such a major global climate event as COP29, which will take place in Baku. And this event is not only dedicated to environmental and climate issues, but also in its context has acquired great foreign political significance. For example, last year the 28th UN Climate Change Conference was held in the UAE, and that country not only used the opportunity to raise its international reputation, but also to attract new investments. Baku is also trying to use the occasion of the 29th Climate Change Conference to its advantage, mainly to improve its image. And, in general, Azerbaijan has a problem to present itself to the world that it is not isolated and enjoys the support of the international community. And the demonstration of all this is very important for Baku, because that country is trying to give international legitimacy to the attack on Artsakh and the many war crimes committed during that time. After all, no matter how calm Azerbaijan shows, the topic of its actions is raised regularly, and it will always be like that. Moreover, the holding of the climate conference is an opportunity to draw the attention of the international community to this issue again. For example, when Egypt hosted the COP in 2022, activists used the event to speak out about the government's crackdown on political opponents. And now the media and reports of human rights organizations are publishing about the criminal acts committed by Azerbaijan, and the fact that prisoners of war are still being held in that country is being emphasized. The other problem is related to the dictatorial system ruling in Azerbaijan, where not only free speech is suppressed, but also that country has turned into an estate owned by one family. Aliyev puts brutal pressure on the opposition, trying to perpetuate his power in the status of a khan. And various structures and human rights organizations make specific records about this. From time to time, there is a lot of noise at the international level about the corruption scandals related to Azerbaijan. More than once, investigations were conducted regarding the dirty schemes of the Azerbaijani "laundry" and "caviar diplomacy". Azerbaijan has become a record holder for resorting to bribery and other dirty methods. But Aliyev's regime, as a rule, sees an "Armenian trace" behind all the statements, investigations and reports condemning Azerbaijan, as if the Armenian lobby in different countries is trying to damage the non-existent "democratic" image of Azerbaijan with different levers of influence. Accordingly, Baku is trying to use COP29 to show the world how "democratic" a country it is, that not only sanctions are not imposed on it, but officials from different countries rush to Baku to participate in the conference. The other problem of holding the climate conference in Baku is related to the fact that its content will be mainly related to the reduction of carbon dioxide and other emissions, which creates threats for the entire humanity, but the economy of Azerbaijan is completely based on fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere. Moreover, there are reports that Azerbaijan's state oil and gas company SOCAR and its partners intend to increase the country's annual gas production from the current 37 billion cubic meters to 49 billion cubic meters by 2033. SOCAR also agreed to increase gas exports to the European Union by 17% by 2026. European countries place great hopes on Azerbaijani energy carriers in order to eliminate the consequences of their dependence on Russian gas. But Azerbaijan allegedly buys gas from Russia for domestic consumption, but various analysts state that that country has no potential for such large supplies, and under the name of Azerbaijan, Russian gas appears more expensive on the European market. Along with all this, Azerbaijan is trying to pretend that it attaches great importance to the development of renewable energy and has declared the occupied territory from Artsakh as a green zone. But this does not prevent them from polluting the environment surrounding the Caspian Sea as a result of fossil fuel extraction, preparing to open new mines in Artsakh, burning the forests of Artsakh as a result of the use of phosphorous weapons, and starting to cut down valuable trees in the Shikahoghi reserve. Despite Baku's efforts, it is not excluded that the holding of the forum can be a litmus test for Azerbaijan in a negative sense, as it can become an opportunity to put international pressure on Baku.
ARTHUR KARAPETIAN
