Days before the UN climate conference in Azerbaijan, the BBC has obtained a video of the conference’s chief executive discussing potential fossil fuel deals.
The 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is scheduled to take place in Baku from 11 to 22 November.
Elnur Sultanov, the chief executive of the conference, has used his position to try to attract investment to a state oil and gas company linked to him. Secretly recorded footage shows him discussing a potential deal with a man posing as an investor.
“We have a lot of gas fields that need to be developed,” he says in the recording.
The former head of the UN’s climate agency told the BBC that Sultanov’s actions were “totally unacceptable” and a “betrayal” of the entire COP.
Sultanov is not only the head of COP29, he is also Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister. He sits on the board of SOCAR, the state oil and gas company. Azerbaijan’s COP29 team did not respond to requests for comment.
Oil and gas make up half of Azerbaijan’s economy and more than 90% of its exports.
COP29 opens on Monday. It is the 29th annual summit where UN governments discuss climate change and how to combat it.
For the second year running, the BBC has found alleged abuses linked to the summit’s host government. The BBC was provided with documents and secret videos made by the human rights group Global Witness.
One of its representatives approached the COP29 team, posing as the head of a fictitious Hong Kong investment company specializing in energy.
He said the company was interested in sponsoring COP29, but in exchange would like to discuss investing in SOCAR. Sultanov organized the online meeting.
During the meeting, Sultanov told the potential sponsor that the conference was aimed at “solving the climate crisis” and “transitioning away from hydrocarbons in a fair, orderly, and equitable manner.”
He said anyone, including oil and gas companies, “can come with solutions” because “Azerbaijan’s doors are open.” But he was open to discussing deals, including oil and gas deals.
Sultanov initially suggested the potential sponsor consider investing in some of the “clean energy transition projects” SOCAR is involved in, but then mentioned opportunities related to Azerbaijan’s plans to increase gas production, including new pipeline infrastructure. He raised the possibility of joint ventures.
“SOCAR trades oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia,” he says in the video.
He called natural gas a “transition fuel,” and said, “We will produce a certain amount of oil and natural gas, perhaps forever.”
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges that oil and gas will play a role through 2050 and beyond. However, it has made clear that “new oil and gas development is incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C.”
It also contradicts the agreement reached at the last global climate summit to phase out fossil fuels.
Sultanov promised a potential investor that he would help connect his team with SOCAR. A couple of weeks later, the fake Hong Kong company received an email from the Azerbaijani one.
Attempts to do business within the COP process are considered a serious violation.
These activities must be aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change – not selling more of them.
These rules are set by the UN body responsible for climate negotiations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The UN said it could not comment directly on the situation, but said the same strict standards apply to any country hosting the conference, and that these standards reflect “the importance of impartiality on the part of all decision-makers.”
The code of conduct for COP officials states that they “must act without bias, partiality, favouritism, caprice, personal interest, preference or concession, and strictly in the exercise of sound, independent and fair judgment.”
Their personal views and convictions must not compromise their role and functions as UNFCCC officials.
Christiana Figueres, who oversaw the signing of the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce global warming to well below 2°C, told the BBC she was shocked that any COP official could use their position to make oil and gas deals.
She said it was a betrayal and contrary to the aims of the COP.
BBC journalists got acquainted with the transfer