Gas Deals at UN Climate Summit; Leader Touts Oil as “Gift of God” – Liberty Sentinel

BAKU, Azerbaijan — The top official hosting the 29th annual United Nations “climate change” conference was caught on a secret recording trying to make gas deals with a fake Chinese investor, causing outrage among climate alarmists at the UN summit. One leading UN climate figure called it “treason” to the process.

Not the First Time

It was not the first time climate summits have been used by Big Government and Big Business to fleece the public and even make oil deals.

In fact, the latest scandal brings back memories of last year’s UN COP28 summit on the Arabian Peninsula. That confab brought some 80,000 participants to Dubai from around the world. There, Arab officials were caught making oil and gas deals with Communist China and various African and Latin American governments. Again, Western alarmists were outraged, but most of the world yawned.

Mocking the “fake news media” in the United States, Azerbaijan’s leader, Ilham Aliyev, said all natural resources are a blessing from the Creator and that countries should “not be blamed for having them” or for bringing them to market. He further declared that oil and hydrocarbon energy are a “gift of God.”

The “Scandal”

The new “scandal” widely drummed up by Western media involves the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov. In a covertly taped exchange of the meeting, Soltanov was caught discussing “investment opportunities” in the petro-state’s government-owned oil and gas company, SOCAR, with an activist pretending to be a Chinese energy investor seeking to sponsor the COP and invest in Azerbaijan.  

During the exchange, Soltanov, a director of SOCAR and the deputy energy minister of the Azeri government, says:

We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed…. There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established.… Socar is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia.… I would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [Socar] so that they can start discussions.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims that oil and gas production must end within the next few decades to limit global temperature increases. (That widely ridiculed a body has consistently been proven wrong on its predictions and assertions.) But Soltanov said gas was a “transitional fuel” to be produced “perhaps forever.” This clearly flew in the face of last year’s UN climate deal vowing to eliminate fossil fuels.

The oil dealing also brought into question comments made by UN climate czar Simon Stiell at the opening of COP29. “The shift to clean-energy and climate-resilience will not be stopped,” the UNFCCC executive secretary told delegates from around the world. “Our job is to accelerate this and make sure its huge benefits are shared by all countries and all peoples.”

The Video

The video was obtained by a left-wing activist group called “Global Witness,” which styles itself a “human-rights” organization. According to news reports, the activist posing as a Chinese businessman sought a meeting with Soltanov to sponsor the summit. During the meeting, Soltanov offered to help facilitate investment in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas fields.  

In an email exchange between Azerbaijan’s COP29 team and the “Chinese investors,” the two sides discussed a $600,000 “sponsorship” deal. In return, the fake sponsors were to get an introduction to key SOCAR leaders and be part of a “sustainable oil and gas investing” event at the COP29 summit. The deal was set to include five all-access passes to the UN summit, too.

News of the phony dealings sent shock waves across the Western media. It was first reported by the far-left BBC, a state-backed broadcaster considered among the most alarmist outlets in the world. Under the headline “COP29 chief exec filmed promoting fossil fuel deals,” the “climate editor” could barely contain his outrage. He quoted climate activists declaring it all to be “completely unacceptable” and a “betrayal.”

Hydrocarbon energy is no small issue for Azerbaijan. Oil and gas account for about half of its GDP and around 90 percent of its exports. Accordingly, Western liberals were dismayed at the decision to host the controversial climate conference there. It follows last year’s summit in the United Arab Emirates, another major hydrocarbon energy producer that quite literally depends on oil and gas for its survival.

UN Reaction

The UN has so far refused to comment directly on the remarks made by Soltanov. The BBC reported:

The UN said it could not comment directly on our findings but remarked that “the same rigorous standards” are applied to whoever hosts the conference, and that those standards reflect “the importance of impartiality on the part of all presiding officers.” …

“They are also expected to ensure that personal views and convictions do not compromise or appear to compromise their role and functions as a UNFCCC officer.”

Speaking to the BBC, former UN climate czar Christiana Figueres blasted the Azeri leaders involved. Ignoring last year’s scandal in which Emirati authorities did the same thing, Figueres claimed to be “shocked” that a COP leader would use his official position to make oil and gas deals. She called the actions “contrary” to the purpose of the UN COP29 and “a treason” to the broader climate process.

Figueres No Saint

Figueres, who oversaw the Paris negotiations, has been clouded in scandal herself. In 2012, for instance, she opened the UN summit in Cancun with a bizarre “prayer” to the Mayan deity Ixchel. She claimed Ixchel was the goddess of “creativity” and “tapestries.” However, she ignored the demonic entity’s well-known associations with cannibalism, war, and human sacrifice.

The far-left Latin American UN bigwig also let the cat out of the bag in 2015. Suggesting the climate agenda is less about the environment and more about economic transformation away from free markets, she said:

This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for the, at least, 150 years.

Azeri authorities and SOCAR have not publicly responded to requests for comment about the media-manufactured scandal. However, Azeri leader Aliyev’s comments at the summit about the divine origin of blessings including hydrocarbon fuels and all natural resources marked a significant and almost unprecedented example of pushback against anti-energy extremism of Western globalists and their UN minions.  

Of course, on paper, everyone claims to agree that CO₂ is bad and so-called fossil fuels must go. Ending all hydrocarbon energy was actually the main point in the agreement inked at last year’s UN climate summit. However, as The New American reported afterward, that ban on cost-effective energy apparently only applies to Western nations — what used to be known as Christendom or the “Free World.”

Continue reading at The New American.