At COP29, Azerbaijan's gas magically becomes much "greener" than Russian gas

COP29 (the United Nations Conference on Climate Change currently underway in Baku, Azerbaijan) is becoming the perfect stage for the European Union to redefine Azerbaijani fossil fuels as "sustainable" and "low-emission".In this way, while on the one hand it publicly proclaims its gradual reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, on the other the EU leads the expansion of Azerbaijani gas, in order to guarantee internal energy security after the cut in Russian gas supplies – it matters little if with resources that come from a country where serious violations of human rights are taking place.

Ilham Aliyev's Azerbaijan is one of the fossil energy producers that could constitute a ideal partner for the EU, after it decided to replace low-cost Russian fossil fuels with those from other countries.The State has in fact announced its intention to increase its fossil production by a third in the next decade, also thanks to the growing need of European countries.The Corporate Europe Observatory, a non-profit organization that monitors and documents the effects of corporate lobbying within the main EU bodies, has illustrated as, at least from 2022, the Union has exerted pressure on Azerbaijan to join the Global Methane Pledge (GMP), the project launched at COP26 in 2021 with the aim of reducing methane emissions - a powerful greenhouse gas, which represents 70-90% of fossil gas.The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had herself encouraged the country to join the GMP.In the same year, the announcement came that it would be doubled the capacity of the pipeline Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), 3,500 km long, which reaches Italy from Baku.

When Baku was announced as the host of COP29 in December 2023, things became more urgent.The new one legislation of the EU on methane emissions which was about to be approved, in fact, required all exporting countries to have rules similar to those of the EU, which is why it was necessary for Azerbaijan and SOCAR (Azerbaijani state company ) signed as soon as possible.At the end of February this year, the European Commission presented a concrete proposal For joint activities to be carried out at COP29, aimed at finding a favorable agreement for the EU, as well as for Azerbaijan, and at the same time trying to safeguard its image in terms of environmental sustainability with respect to climate objectives.

A few days after sending the proposal, the European Commission continued its lobbying campaign during the Annual Conference on the Implementation of OGMP 2.0, held in Madrid under the supervision of Repsol, the Spanish oil and gas giant.At the conference, which brought together representatives of more than 125 oil and gas producers together with national and regional regulatory authorities, representatives of Azerbaijan were also present, who announced its adherence to the GMP right away after the conference.With the accession of Azerbaijan and SOCAR to the GMP and OGMP 2.0, the first part of the EU plan was completed.The next step would be to make COP29 the stage to showcase their “low-emissions” gas to the world in order to justify expanding imports.And so it is happening, with the EU that tells how he is abandoning fossil fuels while supporting the expansion of Azerbaijani gas production.

In this context, the long-standing ongoing conflict in the region cannot fail to be mentioned Nagorno-Karabakh, disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As soon as a year ago, Azerbaijan completed a military operation (the latest in a very long series) which, according to the Armenian government, took on the features of a real ethnic cleansing of the population, with tens of thousands of Armenians living in the region forced to flee their homes.

[by Michele Manfrin]