Azerbaijan is accused of ‘greenwashing’ as it hosts the COP29 climate summit

“Despite what it might claim, Azerbaijan has no ambition to take climate action. It is planning to expand fossil fuel production, which is completely incompatible with the 1.5C limit and the goals of the Paris agreement on climate change,” Thunberg writes.

Moreover, the climate activist accuses the country of fueling “the Israeli war machine”, since  Azerbaijan also accounts for about 40% of Israel’s annual oil imports.

Thunberg also mentions the human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan’s Aliyev regime against Armenians.

“Azerbaijan is planning to greenwash its crimes against Armenians by building a ‘Green Energy Zone’ on territories where the population has been ethnically cleansed”, she writes.

Armenian human rights and environmental organizations have also spoken out about Azerbaijan’s abuses and ‘greenwashing’ attempts, according to a ‘Eurasianet’ report.

A statement issued by several Armenian NGOs, said Azerbaijan was engaging in “mass deforestation” in Armenian territory currently occupied by Azerbaijani armed forces, saying that they’re “devastating ecosystems” via constructions and depraving local residents of access to water.

The statement also urged COP29 participants to speak out about “violations of humanitarian law, ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population and the destruction of Armenian historical and cultural heritage”.

The NGOs also critized the UN’s decision to select Azerbaijan as the host, saying that not only is it a country with a fossil fuel-based economy, but that it also “uses profits from these resources to expand military aggression and blatantly violate international law.”

However, it’s not the first time that the UN’s climate summit host has been controversial. In fact, the two previous hosts, The United Arab Emirates and Egypt, also stand out for their authoritarian regimes, human rights violations and environmental issues.

In an op-ed for ‘The Economist’, Karimli writes that hosting the COP29 is a prime opportunity for Aliyev to “distract from his regime’s darker side: more than 300 political prisoners, a crushed media and civil society, and the absence of fundamental political freedoms like free speech, freedom of assembly and due process.”

The independent watchdog Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan as the least democratic state in Europe, with the regime actively targeting journalists, independent media outlets, political and civic activists, and human rights defenders.

“The people seek free elections and the rule of law, yet the authoritarian Aliyev regime instead stifles dissent through mass arrests, bringing Azerbaijan ever closer to Russia and the club of authoritarian heads of state,” Karimli writes.

The opposition leader, also asks COP29 attendees to “raise awareness of the political prisoners unjustly detained” and asks them “not to ignore their fight for democracy and human rights.”

According to independent Azerbaijani media outlet ‘Meydan’, the country’s overall environmental situation, is hard to overlook as well, with “widespread pollution of air, water, and soil and industrial pollution leading to a decline in biodiversity and disruption of ecosystems.”

The media outlet recalls a series of events in 2023 where the people of the village of Soyudlu were protesting the construction of a second lake near an already existing lake filled with cyanide next to a gold mine that brought sickness and death to the locals.

The journalists who covered the events were soon threatened and arrested. International human rights expert Florian Irminger told ‘Meydan’ he believes this was an attempt to silence climate justice voices in Azerbaijan ahead of COP29.

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