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We are days away from the start of COP29 in Azerbaijan. After previous hosts Egypt and the UAE, many had hoped for a more promising (and less authoritarian) location for the world’s most important climate policy forum, Transparency International reports.

Instead, they’ve been left disappointed. For the second year in a row, a petrosate with an appalling human rights record is hosting the UN Climate Change Conference. The irony of COP descending on Azerbaijan - a country where two thirds of government revenue comes from oil and gas - is not lost on the NGO community. But the climate emergency is too existential and too urgent for policy-makers to leave the COP process vulnerable to undue influence and captured by a few.

Oil and gas loom large at COP29

The challenge is significant: there is a serious risk that COP29 will be co-opted by Azerbaijani political elites, oil and gas companies, and lobbyists to promote a pro-fossil fuel industry agenda. Transparency International’s new report, co-written with the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC), warns that the absence of robust integrity and anti-corruption measures at COP has opened the door for Azerbaijan’s government to use the summit as diplomatic cover to advance its domestic oil and gas interests and secure new fossil fuel deals.

This undue influence comes from the very heart of COP29’s leadership. Its President, Mukhtar Babayev, is a former executive of SOCAR Azerbaijan’s state oil company. If that weren’t concerning enough, several members of the company are deeply involved in organising the conference; SOCAR’s president sits on the COP29 Organising Committee, and the CEO of COP 29 sits on SOCAR’s supervisory board. The head of SOCAR has already been seen mixing COP business with their corporate agendas, signing new cooperation agreements with international partners.

Beyond official involvement, the Azerbaijani regime will likely profit significantly from COP29. Several corporate sponsors of the summit, or so-called ‘Green Zone Partners,’ maintain clear or alleged links to Azerbaijan’s ruling. At the same time, the government has launched an almost US$5m public relations campaign aimed at cleaning up its international reputation – a fee that rivals the $5.8m Azerbaijan paid to UNFCCC to host the conference. Earlier this week, Global Witness uncovered 71 suspicious X accounts that appear to have been artificially manipulating COP29 content on the platform by sharing pro-regime narratives. This PR effort contrasts sharply with the severe repression of independent media and civil society that dare to criticise Baku’s human rights abuses and kleptocracy.

Leaders must tackle corruption and undue influence to meet climate goals

The unacceptable lack of guardrails threatens the integrity of climate negotiations, casting doubt on the neutrality of the Presidency as well as the process’s fairness and openness. This is why we are calling on the UNFCCC to establish protections that prevent future hosts from putting their own agenda before the common good.

We need strengthened criteria for selecting COP host countries and corporate sponsors, ensuring future summits take place in environments where human rights, transparency, and freedom of expression are guaranteed; more robust measures to prevent conflicts of interest from derailing climate deliberations; and unrestricted civil society participation at all future COPs.

Keeping the climate goals alive demands tackling climate corruption head on. The integrity of the entire global climate framework is in jeopardy if we do not take these urgent steps to protect the COP process. COP30 host Brazil recently announced the possibility of arranging a global ethical stocktake at next year’s Conference, which could go a long way in rebuilding trust and moving towards ambitious climate action.