BAKU, Azerbaijan — Ilham Aliyev’s fossil fuel glorification is “inappropriate” for the leader of a country hosting an international climate conference, Belgium’s energy minister told POLITICO.
The Azerbaijani president used his opening speech at the COP29 climate summit in Baku this week to praise the country’s oil and gas resources as a “gift of the God.”
“I really think that’s inappropriate, as a host of a conference, to say such things,” said Tinne Van der Straeten, Belgium’s energy minister, in an interview on the conference sidelines.
“If you host the conference, if you are the presidency, then what do you need to be? An honest broker,” she added, noting that most of the countries represented at COP29 are “confronted daily by the consequences of climate change,” which is primarily driven by fossil fuel use.
