For 2-week COP29, host Azerbaijan seeks a pause in conflicts

The Russia-Ukraine war, which has been going on for the last two years, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict since the October 7 attack by Hamas, are both happening within the extended neighbourhood of the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan. The two wars are not just a distraction to the climate problem, but also having their own impacts on worsening the climate crisis.

Azerbaijan itself has been involved in a long-standing dispute with neighbour Armenia over claims on Nagarno-Karabakh region. But in a surprise agreement in December last year, the two countries expressed their intention to normalise relations and reach a peace treaty. That agreement also paved way for hosting the COP in Azerbaijan, which Armenia had been opposed to till that point.

Hajiyev said Azerbaijan would offer its own example to try and convince the other countries to cease hostilities during the COP.

“We have shown it in our region, through the Armenia Azerbaijan joint statement on peace last year. The conflict is over, and this (hosting of COP) is one of the major grounds. For the first time in the history of independence of Armenia and Azerbaijan, there is peace on the ground,” he said.

“We are trying to build support for our initiative. We have spoken to our UN counterparts and several countries and have received positive response,” he said.

The idea of ‘COP truce’ is similar to the tradition of Olympic truce which usually sees a cessation of hostilities during the summer and winter Olympic Games, starting from a week before the Games and lasting up to a week after the end. Incidentally, the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, came just four days after the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing that year. This year, the summer Olympics are to be held from July 26 to August 11.

Hajiyev acknowledged that the two wars had led to deep geopolitical divisions in the world which had made it extremely difficult for countries to reach a consensus on any issue, including climate change.

“Unfortunately, the world is divided. In particular, Eurasian countries are deeply divided. The current geopolitical context is such that it seems like the Cold War conundrum, in a much worse manifestation, is back in international relations. Under such circumstances, reaching a consensus on anything, including climate, is very difficult,” Hajiyev said.

“Azerbaijan’s approach (as host of COP29) is to try and impress upon everyone that the climate issue is very different. On geopolitical and security issues, countries can be on different sides of the fence, but climate affects everybody, everywhere. We would work towards creating a global unanimous attitude on that. For that reason, we hope that countries in the West and Russia are able to see Azerbaijan as the place to come together on the climate issue and forge a consensus, common understanding and agreement,” he said.