The 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) will be held from November 11 to 22 in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. This conference is the continuation of the series of conferences, especially after the signing of the Paris climate agreement in December 2015 at the meeting (COP21), with the serious aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the increase in global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius compared to the previous level. They follow industrialization and efforts to limit this increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The financial support of developed countries to developing, poor and vulnerable countries to deal with climate change and their adaptation to the consequences of unusual weather effects are among other goals of these conferences. The United Nations Climate Change Conference focused on dealing with global environmental pollution was held in Dubai in 2023 and will be held in Brazil in 2025.
Choosing Baku to host the 29th UN Climate Change Conference, which was influenced by the financial considerations of this conference, has mainly faced negative reactions from organizations, groups and independent activists who defend the environment and human rights in the world. From their point of view, a set of reasons and legal and technical variables confirm that the Republic of Azerbaijan is not a worthy choice to host the UN Climate Change Conference.
In this regard, seven points can be emphasized as follows:
First: The United Nations Climate Change Conference is one of the most important achievements of international environmental law, which is derived from the declarations and fundamental documents of international environmental law, namely the Stockholm Declaration (1972) and the Rio Declaration (1992) about the world’s environmental challenges and the necessity The participation of countries is to deal with them. The procedure for holding these meetings after the adoption of the Rio Declaration has been based on the fact that countries that play a leading role in dealing with environmental pollution and have effective national achievements in this regard are chosen as the hosts of the conference to be a model for others. This is due to the fact that the Republic of Azerbaijan has a bad record in environmental protection. In this regard, four examples can be proposed:
1. The Republic of Azerbaijan, due to the indiscriminate extraction of oil and having worn-out oil platforms left over from the Soviet era and the failure to apply environmental standards, according to international organizations, plays the biggest role in the oil pollution the Caspian Sea environment. Due to the type of water flow in the Caspian Sea, if oil pollution enters the sea during oil extraction by Baku, this pollution will naturally enter the coast of Iran. Under the influence of Baku’s non-standard oil activity, thousands of tons of oil leak into the Caspian Sea every year, which has caused the formation of “spots of several kilometers” and their movement towards the coasts of Iran and the oil pollution of these coasts, especially in the “Sangachin” area of Anzali port. But Baku refuses to pay compensation for oil pollution on the coast of Iran, within the framework of the binding legal obligation of the “polluter pays principle.” Iran is the only coastal country of the Caspian Sea that does not have oil extraction in this sea. Due to Baku’s non-compliance with international oil extraction standards, the country has become a paradise for oil giants, including BP, whose main priority is profit. The same issue has caused other environmental disasters in the Caspian Sea, including the damage of four hundred native species of this sea, including the mass death of thousands of sea seals and their reduction to a third, and the risk of extinction of 1 fish.
2. Environmental disaster in the village of Söyüdlü, Gadabay District in the Republic of Azerbaijan, including the spread of cancer and the death of hundreds of people, the damage of agricultural products and the loss of bees, due to the leakage of cyanide and acidic and toxic substances from the mining waste tank. Gold, like other examples of environmental disasters, was not only not met with the accountability of the Baku authorities; Rather, in June 2023, the villagers’ protest against the construction of a second reservoir for this mine led to the dispatch of anti-riot forces and the violent suppression of local people and journalists. Protesting against the activity of this mine owned by the Aliyev family and the Anglo-ASEAN Mining company, they believe that the leakage of waste from the “mining waste tank” into the Shamkirchay River will cause destruction and environmental damage to the cities of Shamkir, Tovuz and Ganja.
3. Contrary to the principles of the Rio Declaration, including the principle of timely notification, the Republic of Azerbaijan has not yet published its research on nuclear waste disposal in the Caspian Sea. On June 5, 1999, the newspapers Yeni Mosavat and Express revealed in shocking news that the government of Baku would bury them in the Caspian Sea bed for receiving 260,000 dollars for each container of nuclear waste. These nuclear wastes were transported from Ukraine by ship to Georgia and from there to the Republic of Azerbaijan by rail.
4. Due to the lack of investment in the field of sewage infrastructure, every year, millions of tons of untreated urban, household and industrial waste from the densely populated cities of Baku and Sumgait flow into the Caspian Sea and from Nakhchivan into the Aras River, which play a major role in endangering the ecosystem of this sea is closed.
Second: The annual climate change conferences of the United Nations are not only related to “environmental rights” but also to “human rights” and “environmental human rights.” The Republic of Azerbaijan has not only violated the principles of international environmental law but also has a very negative track record in human rights. The rights of Shiite Muslims, who make up the majority of 80% of the population of this country, are systematically violated through repression or passing unjust laws, and there are more than 5 thousand political prisoners in this country due to their religious tendencies, as reported in the reports acknowledged by the International organizations defending human rights. At the same time, the cultural, linguistic, religious, economic and “right to effective participation” rights of many ethnic, linguistic and national minorities in this country, including the Talysh, Tats, Udis, Avars, and Kurds, are violated.
Third: Past experiences show that the Republic of Azerbaijan views international conferences as an instrument and uses them as a cover to divert public opinion from fundamental violations of human and humanitarian rights in this country. During the last two decades, Baku tried to divert the world’s public opinion from the suppression of the hijab movement in this country and social protests by holding 2 international competitions and Eurovision music. Currently, the Republic of Azerbaijan is trying to use (COP29) as a tool to divert the public opinion of the world, especially the Western world, from the “ethnic cleansing” of the autonomous region of Karabakh. On September 19, 2023, the Republic of Azerbaijan attacked Karabagh. It violated the 2020 Moscow ceasefire agreement, causing mass deportation and forced migration of more than 120 thousand native Armenians from this region and violating their property and historical, cultural and religious rights. This violent attack, which resulted in the death, injury and disappearance of hundreds of people, was accompanied by the silence of most Western governments due to Baku’s oil concessions, the lawyers of the International Criminal Court considered it an example of ethnic cleansing and a war crime. By using the event (COP29), hosting about 80,000 people, and showing a peaceful face, Baku is trying to divert the world’s public opinion from this ethnic cleansing. For this reason, at the same time as the news about the destruction of historical and religious monuments of Armenians expelled from Karabagh, the President of Azerbaijan announced the lands of Karabagh and its surroundings as a “green energy” region and promised that these regions will become zero emission regions of carbon dioxide by 2050 ?! Such stances come in the situation that despite its domination over Karabagh and even encroachment on parts of Armenian territory, Baku is not willing to officially recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia. So, in Astana (COP29), the president of Azerbaijan, by refusing to sign a peace treaty with Armenia, proposed new conditions, including changing the constitution of this country, and called the Republic of Armenia with the fake title of “West Azerbaijan,” which means a territorial claim and Baku’s official and unending aggression against the national sovereignty of Armenia.
Fourth, the environmental moves by the Republic of Azerbaijan are mainly of a demonstrative nature or pursue goals other than the environmental principles of the Stockholm and Rio declarations; Baku’s environmental behaviour confirms this. The authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan have expressed concern over the decrease of the water in the Caspian Sea over the last year, and Ilham Aliyev, during Putin’s visit to Baku in August 2024, showed him rocks near the shores of this sea, which are affected by the decrease in water due to high evaporation and diversions. They were created for irrigation along the Volga River. But it didn’t take long before it became clear that the main reason for Baku’s concern about the reduction of Caspian Sea water is its negative impact on worn-out oil and gas extraction facilities. Nazim Mahmoudov, the head of the National Meteorological Service of the Ministry of Environment, told Reuters that the decrease in the water level of the Caspian Sea had a negative impact on economic sectors, especially offshore oil and gas operations. Also, in a situation where the water of the Aras River, the border, joint and international river between Iran, Armenia, Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan, has decreased by about 50% due to the indiscriminate construction of dams by Turkey, including the water intake of the “Karakurt Dam,” at the same time, Baku refrained from The protest against Ankara has diverted the water of the tributary rivers downstream to the Ares River, which has created human rights and environmental consequences for the beneficiaries of this river in Iran.
Fifth: Every year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference serves as an opportunity for environmental activists around the world to raise environmental concerns and protests against the performance of developed countries in land pollution at the same time as the conference. This is in a situation where the government of Baku has no capacity for any opposition, and any protest is severely suppressed. By declaring 2024 as the “Year of Solidarity for a Green World” and launching an electronic visa issuance system for COP29 applicants, Baku is trying to show itself as a suitable host even for protesters, but the preparation of a list of protesters from previous conferences in Dubai and Bonn shows that Baku seeks to block or limit the presence of protesting environmental activists in this conference.
Sixth: Over the last three years, Baku, simultaneously with its territorial claims against its neighbour (Armenia) and in order to fulfill the request of England and Turkey to connect the world known as the “Turkish world” through the division of southern Armenia, has built the alleged corridor known as “Zangzor” in territory stretching towards the southern borders of Armenia. In addition to ethnic, political and security issues, this corridor has caused one of the biggest environmental disasters in the region. Baku’s haste to launch this corridor, the lack of comprehensive technical studies and the failure to prepare an environmental annex for it caused severe damage to part of the Hyrcanian forests, native habitats of animal species, water tables and violation of the property rights of the owners of these lands. The hosting of COP29 by Baku amid the continuation of the environmental disaster on the way to the construction of this alleged corridor and the prohibition of any media coverage of this issue inside the Republic of Azerbaijan is a bitter irony of international environmental rights.
Seventh: In addition to the mentioned legal reasons, the Republic of Azerbaijan is technically not a worthy host for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. According to the report of the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in 2022, the number of beds in hotels and guesthouses in Baku and the Absheron Peninsula was 24,696. Given the absence of extensive new infrastructure after 2022, it is not clear how Baku will be able to host eighty thousand people during COP29, even including the facilities of the Athletes’ Village. Unless the attendance days of the participants are limited and phased! The lack of direct flights from some important world capitals to Baku, the reluctance of most large companies and start-ups active in the field of environment to be in Baku due to technical and infrastructure weaknesses and the atmosphere caused by the effects on the possible effectiveness of Trump on the future of the agreement Paris is one of the other issues that overshadowed the COP29 conference in Baku.
The truth is that the financial problems facing the United Nations and its related structures has caused some countries that have clear records of violating the charter and negative records from the perspective of human rights to try to spend money from oil revenues on displaying a favourable image of themselves rather than tackling their own people’s problems.
Holding the COP29 conference in Baku is a kind of violation of intent, discrediting the ideals and goals of international environmental law and weakening its next summit in Brazil. In a way, this event is reminiscent of the behaviour of Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations in June 2016, during the aggression of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, who admitted that he was forced to make a “difficult and painful decision” due to Saudi Arabia’s role in funding the United Nations and remove it from the UN blacklist of countries regarding children.
The sum of the mentioned cases shows that, from a legal point of view, Baku is not a worthy host for the UN climate change conference.
* Dr. Ahmed Kazemi, University professor of international law
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