'Fossil fuels, perhaps forever,' COP29 CEO caught on tape brokering oil deals

The CEO of COP29 allegedly agreed to help arrange fossil fuel deals during the upcoming climate summit. 

The incident was caught on camera by an activist organisation Global Witness, pretending to be a fake oil and gas company named 'EC Capital'. The namesake company requested COP29’s help to facilitate deals in exchange for sponsorship of the event.

As per the Global Witness, during the conversation, Elnur Soltanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister and CEO of COP29, agreed to the demands and discussed a future where fossil fuels might be used "perhaps forever." 

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Soltanov also introduced this fake investor group to a senior executive at SOCAR, Azerbaijan's national oil and gas company, to discuss investment opportunities. He established a "contact between the fake investor and [SOCAR] … so that they can start discussions.”

In the recording, Soltanov told the group, “There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established. Socar is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia.”

He also called natural gas a “transitional fuel” and mentioned, “We will have a certain amount of oil and natural gas being produced, perhaps forever.” This contrasts with last year’s COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels and the stance of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has stated that new oil and gas development contradicts the climate targets of the Paris Agreement.

This video has drawn outrage from activists who are calling for a ban on fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists at COP gatherings.

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The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which oversees COP, expects its officials to act without any personal gain and prohibits them from using their positions for private interests.

This incident follows a similar controversy at last year’s COP28 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where leaked documents revealed the host country planned to use climate meetings to promote deals for its national oil and gas companies. Those talks were led by Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the UAE’s national oil company Adnoc and the country’s climate representative.

Reacting to the development, UNFCCC told the BBC, that “the [UNFCCC] secretariat has the same rigorous standards every year, reflecting the importance of impartiality on the part of all presiding officers. Given the spiralling human and economic costs of the global climate crisis in every country, we are very focused on Cop29 delivering ambitious and concrete outcomes.”

(With inputs from agencies)