BAKU, Azerbaijan Nov 14 \u2013 The president of COP29\u2019s host country has told the UN climate conference that oil and gas are a \u201cgift of God\u201d.<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev criticised \u201cWestern fake news\u201d about the country\u2019s emissions and said nations \u201cshould not be blamed\u201d for having fossil fuel reserves.<\/p>\n
The country plans to expand gas production by up to a third over the next decade.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterwards, UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres told the conference that doubling down on the use of fossil fuels was \u201cabsurd\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the \u201cclean energy revolution\u201d had arrived and that no government could stop it.<\/p>\n
Separately, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged\u00a0further reductions<\/a>\u00a0on emissions, saying the UK will now aim for an 81% decrease by 2035. The UK called for other countries to match the new target.<\/p>\n \u201cMake no mistake, the race is on for the clean energy jobs of the future, the economy of tomorrow, and I don\u2019t want to be in the middle of the pack \u2013 I want to get ahead of the game,\u201d Sir Keir told the conference.<\/p>\n Some observers had expressed concerns about\u00a0the world\u2019s largest climate conference taking place in Azerbaijan.<\/a><\/p>\n Its minister for ecology and natural resources \u2013 a former oil executive that spent 26 years at Azerbaijan\u2019s state-owned oil and gas company Socar \u2013 is the conference\u2019s chairman.<\/p>\n There are also concerns that Azerbaijani officials are\u00a0using COP29 to boost investment in the country\u2019s national oil and gas company.<\/a><\/p>\n But addressing the conference on its second day, President Aliyev said Azerbaijan had been subject to \u201cslander and blackmail\u201d ahead of COP29.<\/p>\n He said it had been as if \u201cWestern fake news media\u201d, charities and politicians were \u201ccompeting in spreading disinformation\u2026 about our country\u201d.<\/p>\n Aliyev said the country\u2019s share in global gas emissions was \u201conly 0.1%\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all\u2026 are natural resources and countries should not be blamed for having them, and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market, because the market needs them.\u201d<\/p>\n Oil and gas are a major cause of climate change because they release planet-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide when burned for energy.<\/p>\n The US is also under the spotlight at the conference, following the election victory of Donald Trump \u2013 a known climate sceptic.<\/p>\n On Monday, US President Joe Biden\u2019s envoy John Podesta called out president-elect Trump\u2019s\u00a0view that climate change was a hoax\u00a0<\/a>and said the US team would continue to work on the deal passed at COP28 in 2023.<\/p>\n He added that Washington was also working on a deal passed last year in Dubai to triple renewable power by 2030.<\/p>\n Addressing the conference in Baku on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Guterres decried \u201cdoubling down on fossil fuels\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sound you hear is the ticking clock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and time is not on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n He called 2024 a \u201cmasterclass in climate destruction\u201d with disasters being \u201csupercharged by human-made climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n