He is certainly the current Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the country. But in Azerbaijan, Mukhtar Babayev is best known for having been one of the managers of the Socar oil company. In November, the 56-year-old politician will be president of the 29th UN climate conference, which will be held in November in Baku, the capital of the former Soviet republic. The announcement was made this Friday by a ministry official.
This will be the second year in a row that a COP on climate has been chaired by a man with senior responsibilities in his country’s national oil company.
Last year, the United Arab Emirates, hosts of COP28, chose Sultan Al Jaber, boss of the national company Adnoc, to chair the UN conference, which concluded in Dubai with a historic call for a “transition” away from fossil fuels, the first time that a COP has launched such a call. The agreement was, however, described as “timid” by many observers.