BRUSSELS — Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s global climate talks, has suggested that continued fossil fuel extraction is compatible with the Paris Agreement.
With four months to go until COP29 kicks off in Baku, the Azerbaijani presidency on Friday announced a flurry of “initiatives” — a set of 14 nonbinding pledges and partnerships that countries are encouraged to sign up to at the summit.
At the same press conference, the summit’s chief executive, Elnur Soltanov, suggested that the Paris climate accord — under which countries agreed to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally to 1.5 C — does not necessarily mean reducing fossil fuel production.
“To be 1.5 C-aligned is the goal,” said Soltanov, who also serves as Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, when asked if Baku believed that countries’ climate plans could include continued expansion of oil, gas and coal.
