350

A large coalition of over 150 civil society organizations is calling out oil industry participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in a bid to rid the process of a serious conflict of interest that could threaten the success of COP29, the UN climate summit due to take place in Azerbaijan in November.

The recent announcement that Azerbaijan will include state oil boss, Rovshan Najaf, in the organizing committee, continues a worrying trend of increased oil industry influence on the host countries of the UN climate summits.

The global coalition led by 350.org and Oil Change International have detailed their concerns in an open letter to COP29 President, Mukhtar Babayev. The letter, originally signed and sent by the Executive Directors of 350.org, Oil Change International, Action Aid, and CIEL still hasn’t received a response from the COP29 presidency. Organizations including youth, environmental, human rights, and indigenous groups from over 50 countries and six continents have since signed on.

The organizations demand the removal of Rovshan Najaf, president of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), from the COP29 organizing committee, to address the conflict of interest. Last year, SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company announced plans to expand fossil fuel production which is incompatible with the Paris Agreement – the cornerstone of the COP climate negotiations.

The open letter further expresses deep concerns over civil society’s freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and human rights in the COP29 host country Azerbaijan. The organizations are asking Babayev to clarify the role of Ilgar Musayev, the Head of the country’s Service of Special Communication and Information Security, who has also been appointed as a member of the organizing committee.

March 20, 2024

Dear COP29 President-designate,

Hosting the UN climate talks is a profound responsibility to the global community. Trust in the presidency is essential for a successful COP. We, along with parties and global civil society, expect every COP presidency to embody the highest standards of integrity, uphold human rights and civic space, and serve as the custodian of a process that transcends the interests of the host country, any one country bloc or any one industry.

It is in this context, that we, over 150 organizations from around the world, express serious concerns about the recent announcement of February 22, 2024, by the COP29 presidency to extend the COP29 organizing committee: namely on the participation of Rovshan Najaf, president of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Ilgar Musayev, Head of the country’s Service of Special Communication and Information Security in the core team of this year’s climate summit, the COP29 organizing committee.

This announcement takes place in the context of existing concerns about gender parity in the COP29 organizing committee, following the complete absence of any women in the initial committee. 

We write now to express our serious concerns over conflicts of interest and the undue influence of the oil industry on the global climate talks. Despite Azerbaijan being a party to the Paris Agreement, having endorsed the UAE consensus and accepted the findings of the IPCC, SOCAR  plans to expand its fossil fuel production, which is incompatible with the objective of limiting warming to 1.5°C, and lacks a clear and credible strategy to transition away from fossil fuels. 

We are keenly aware that Azerbaijan is not alone in expanding fossil fuel production at a time of runaway climate impacts; other members of this club include such Global North governments as the USA, UK, Australia, or Norway. We are further aware that Azerbaijan is not the first fossil fuel producing country to host a COP. At COP28, global civil society criticized the nomination of Sultan Al Jaber as COP president in order to protect the global climate talks from the influence of the fossil fuel industry.  The inclusion of the president of the state oil company in the COP29 organizing committee presents a significant conflict of interest. The credibility of the COP29 presidency, already weakened by your historic ties to the oil and gas industry, risks being further jeopardized by this decision.

In order to shelter the climate talks from the influence of the industry that has a material interest in seeing them fail,  we have been calling for the UN Climate Change Secretariat to establish a clear conflict of interest framework for UNFCCC delegates and COP presidencies. But we also call on you COP29 President-Designate, to address this conflict of interest: As the third COP president in a row from a country whose economy relies heavily on fossil fuel exports, your presidency will be under much scrutiny. 

Furthermore, we are deeply concerned and affected by the rollback and restriction of civic space around the world, including in Azerbaijan, where freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association are severely restricted, civil society activists are subjected to arbitrary arrests and politically motivated prosecutions. We are concerned that in Azerbaijan, peaceful protests are repressed and independent organizations and media outlets face excessive restrictions in law and practice. Just last week, Azerbaijani authorities conducted raids on local media offices and detained a dozen journalists and other civil society members. Such tactics are routinely used by the government of Azerbaijan to silence civil society, especially those who speak out about corruption and environmental harms in the oil industry – like Gubad Ibadoghlu , who has been imprisoned for over six months. As a Party to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Azerbaijan has a legally binding obligation to promote access to information, public participation, and access to justice in the context of international environmental fora and processes such the upcoming COP.

It is in this context that we view the decision to include both Ali Naghiyev, Chief of the State Security Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the head of Azerbaijan’s Service of Special Communication and Information Security in the core COP29 organizing team as highly problematic. We understand the Service of Special Communication and Information Security is responsible for security of members of the government but simultaneously authorizes and oversees the collection of  telecommunication data and surveillance. Hence, as members of civil society organizations, we are concerned about the chilling effect such appointments will have and their implications for the protection of open civic space and human rights, including the rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, security of the person, freedom from arbitrary detention, and privacy. 

We, as civil society, along with Parties, will continue to work to strengthen protection of human rights and environmental accountability within the UNFCCC process, including by ensuring transparency of all Host Country Agreements, which should reflect the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter as well as obligations under international human rights law.

For the sake of the integrity and the success of this process, we urge you to step up transparency and accountability by:

• Removing Rovshan Najaf, president of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), from the COP29 organizing committee, to address the conflict of interest his membership presents
• Clarifying the role and tasks of the State Security Service and the Special Communication and Information Security Service as part of the COP29 organizing committee and ensuring that they do not undertake activities that unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and privacy of anyone in Azerbaijan;
• Ceasing harassment and detention of journalists and civil society activists and enshrining existing legal obligations regarding the protection of civic space and human rights, including the rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, and privacy in the COP29 Host Agreement and, in the interests of full transparency and in accordance with the conclusion of the Arrangement of Intergovernmental Meetings meeting at SB58, publishing the COP29 Host Country Agreement between the UNFCCC and the government of Azerbaijan;

We look forward to hearing from you and stand ready to engage and support COP29 in delivering a just, ambitious, and comprehensive outcome,

Sincerely,