Oil and gas 'gift of God' remark a fitting epitaph for COP climate talking shop

Fossil fuels have provide humanity with many benefits, but we must address their effects on the global climate

The purpose of the 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – signed by nearly every country on the planet – is “preventing ‘dangerous’ human interference with the climate system”. The purpose of the annual “conference of the parties” to the convention is to agree ways to do this.

So it was somewhat odd when COP29’s host, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, used his speech to describe a chief source of said “human interference” – fossil fuels – as a “gift of God”.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev included oil and gas on a list of gifts from God at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan (Picture: Sean Gallup)Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev included oil and gas on a list of gifts from God at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan (Picture: Sean Gallup)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev included oil and gas on a list of gifts from God at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan (Picture: Sean Gallup) | Getty Images

Oil and gas have many undoubted benefits. However, thanks to scientists, it has been established beyond doubt that they are also causing a huge problem which we must confront. To be fair to Aliyev, he also said “of course we will be a strong advocate for green transition, and we are doing it”, but he ensured those remarks would be overshadowed.

His praise for fossil fuels – amid rising carbon emissions and the steady advance of global temperatures into decidedly dangerous territory – is what will be remembered. Unless this latest COP talking shop produces an unlikely breakthrough, it may serve as a fitting epitaph for this increasingly discredited process.

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