COP29 host Azerbaijan brands oil and gas ‘gift from God’
Al Jazeera
President Aliyev accuses West of hypocrisy for criticising country’s fossil-fuel dependence while buying its oil & gas.
Azerbaijan’s president has branded oil and gas a “gift from God” as he welcomed delegates to the COP29 climate summit.
President Ilham Aliyev praised the use of natural resources, including fossil fuels, at the opening ceremony of the United Nations conference in Baku on Tuesday. The Caucasian nation’s leader made the call as he slammed criticism regarding his country’s exports of oil and gas.
Aliyev asserted that Azerbaijan has faced a “campaign of slander and blackmail” amid calls to boycott the summit due to its reliance on fossil fuels.
He accused Western “fake media” – especially from the US – and environmental organisations of running the campaign.
The president of the oil and gas-rich country argued, as he had in the months preceding the summit, that nations should not be judged based on their natural resources and how they use them.
