Azerbaijan is certain to host next year’s COP29 climate change summit, after gaining support from other Eastern European countries on Saturday.
Countries in the Eastern European region, which will host the summit next year, endorsed Baku’s bid during the COP28 summit in Dubai, breaking a geopolitical deadlock over the next global meeting to address climate change. .
Two sources familiar with the talks told Reuters that the regional group’s countries formally endorsed Azerbaijan’s candidacy at a meeting on Saturday afternoon.
“We are very grateful to all countries, in particular the Eastern European group and the United Arab Emirates, (hosts of COP28), for their support,” the country’s Minister of Ecology, Mukhtar Babayev, declared at the summit.
The decision on the host country had been delayed after Russia said it would veto the candidacy of any European Union country as the bloc has imposed sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Azerbaijan is not a member of the EU.
Baku’s bid still needs formal approval from the nearly 200 countries present at COP28 negotiations, but delegates said Saturday they hope that vote will be a formality.
The venues for UN climate summits are usually announced years in advance, and the deadlock at COP29 has left Baku with little time to prepare for the massive meeting.
This year’s UN climate summit in the UAE was the largest to date, with more than 110,000 delegates registered.
Holding the presidency of a UN climate summit gives a country enormous influence over its agenda and its outcomes.
Azerbaijan’s relations with some Western countries have deteriorated since September, when the country regained full control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, causing a near-total exodus of the territory’s ethnic Armenian population.
Azerbaijan is an oil and gas producer and a member of OPEC+. Some delegates expressed concern about holding global climate negotiations in another oil-producing country.
Source: Ambito
