'Outrageous': Azerbaijan Picks Former Oil Exec to Head COP29

https://www.commondreams.org/news/azerbaijan-cop29-oil-executive

Less than a month after COP28 adjourned with a deal chock-full of loopholes for the fossil fuel industry, the host nation of the next United Nations climate summit has appointed an official who spent more than 20 years working for a state-owned oil and gas company to preside over the next round of global talks later this year.

Azerbaijan's choice of Mukhtar Babayev, who currently serves as the country's ecology and natural resources minister, to head the November talks was announced Thursday by the United Arab Emirates—which hosted COP28—and confirmed Friday by the United Nations.

"Bad case of déjà vu," the advocacy group Global Witness said Friday in response to the news, alluding to the fact that COP28 was also led by an oil and gas industry insider.

The appointment sparked outrage and warnings that COP29 is already poised to end similarly to COP28, which was overrun with a record number of oil and gas lobbyists—a fact reflected in the final outcome, which did not include any commitments to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels.