Tony Blair wants to help Azerbaijan run its climate talks

By Karl Mathiesen | 04/03/2024 06:16 AM EDT

The interest from the United Kingdom’s former prime minister highlights contradictions for the powerbrokers and consultants running COP29.

Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair speaks at a panel session during the World Government Summit in Dubai on February 13, 2024.

Tony Blair took an active role at COP28 and has a long-standing relationship with the president of those talks. Ryan Lim/AFP via Getty Images

LONDON — Tony Blair was once hired to lobby for a gas pipeline from Azerbaijan that activists described as a “carbon bomb.” Now he wants to help the Baku government run its climate talks.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), which was founded by the former U.K. prime minister in 2016, has approached the Azeri government with an offer of support for the COP29 climate talks in November, according to two people granted anonymity to speak about confidential discussions.

The TBI did not deny the claims, saying only that it was not working with the COP29 hosts “at present.”

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Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and accounting firm Deloitte are also pitching for a role in COP29, both people said.

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