Azerbaijan, Hosting the COP29 Climate Summit, Highlights its Potential as a Gas Producer

Azerbaijan's gas reserves are being touted by a high-ranking official as a means of supporting the world's energy transition, following the country's successful bid to host the UN climate conference in Baku the following year.

"Azerbaijan exports gas, and when you compare it to other energy sources, gas is a much cleaner sort of energy," President Ilham Aliyev's foreign policy adviser Hikmet Hajiyev stated to reporters on Tuesday. "Azerbaijan has quite serious potential for gas," he stated.

The 2021 BP Statistical Review of World Energy estimates the nation's natural gas reserves to be 2.5 trillion cubic metres. Burning natural gas produces less greenhouse gas emissions than burning coal or oil, but it still produces far more emissions than using renewable energy sources.

According to climate experts, increasing natural gas production is one of the main causes of climate change and has the potential to seriously undermine efforts to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre industrial levels.

Months of geopolitical impasse over the site of the 2024 United Nations climate summit were ended this month at the COP28 negotiations in the United Arab Emirates by the decision to hold COP29 in Baku.

Nearly 200 nations, including longtime rival Armenia, approved of Azerbaijan's request. Following decades of conflict, these nations finally agreed to fundamental peace treaty principles.

"I am happy that we managed to get out of the predicament," Hajiyev remarked. "Now, we can build a coalition between climate action and the peace agenda" .

However, proponents of climate change have expressed reservations about hosting the UN climate talks in an oil-producing country once more. When asked about these objections, Hajiyev stated that hosting the conference was complimentary rather than paradoxical and that countries that export oil should set an example for others to follow. 

The nation, which is a part of OPEC, he continued, favoured a "transitional approach" to getting off fossil fuels as opposed to an abrupt phase-out.

"When are we going to stop drilling? "I don't have a definitive response for that," stated Hajiyev, adding that the nation needed to fulfil ongoing agreements with trading partners. BP is the biggest foreign investor in Azerbaijan.

Beyond the requirement for energy, according to Hajiyev, fossil fuels are still necessary for the production of plastics, which are also the focus of an ongoing international treaty that may limit their usage.

"We should be very realistic and have a broader vision with regards to fossil fuels," he stated.

Hajiyev also outlined the nation's recent investments in renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, as well as its plans to build an electric cable beneath the Black Sea to transport green energy from Azerbaijan's proposed wind farms in the Caspian Sea to Europe.

Source: reuters.com