Azeri president Ilham Aliyev remonstrated a room packed with world leaders at the UN Cop 29 summit in Baku about calling his country a "petrostate", given its small share of global oil and gas production.
He said that it was "not fair" to label Azerbaijan a "petrostate", adding that it might have been "acceptable" when the country produced more than half of global oil output in the 19th century.
He said the country accounts for 0.7pc of global oil production and 0.9pc of global gas production today. He also said that Azerbaijan's share of global greenhouse gas emissions is only 0.1pc. Azerbaijan's oil output reached 480,000 b/d in October.
"Right after Azerbaijan was elected as a host country of Cop 29 we became a target of co-ordinated, well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail," he said.
The Azeri president reiterated that oil and gas is a "gift of god" and that countries rich in natural resources should not be blamed for bringing them to the markets as they are needed.
He pointed out again that eight of the 10 countries that are supplied with Azeri gas are in Europe and that the EU asked Azerbaijan to double its gas supply to the bloc by 2027.
Natural gas output in Azerbaijan reached a new high of 132mn m³/d in 2023, and the country aims to increase it further. Upping exports to the EU to 20bn m³/yr by 2027, from the current 12bn m³/yr, has been a key government commitment since 2022, when Europe was desperate for alternative gas suppliers.
The UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil — the Cop presidencies Troika — face scrutiny for pushing for increased global climate ambitions, but at the same time seemingly avoiding the question of fossil fuels in relation to their own new climate targets.
The Troika countries look at fossil fuels through the lens of their own national circumstances — with their economies being heavily reliant on them. Azerbaijan's increasing gas exports spurred an economic boom, with GDP increasing tenfold over 2003-13.
"As a president of Cop 29, I will be a strong advocate for the green transition, but at the same time we must be realistic," he said. He listed green projects in Azerbaijan, either in the pipeline or already operating, including an agreement to be signed at Cop 29 with BP to build a 240MW solar power station.
