London, January 8, AZERTAC

Ireland’s most widely circulated The Irish Independent newspaper has published an interview with Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In his interview, the Azerbaijani diplomat shared his thoughts on the outcomes of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Baku last year and EU’s hypocrisy on climate.

According to him, the EU talked a lot about the climate crisis but did not always act accordingly.

“We’re being told everything else is secondary, that this is a matter of human survival,” he said.

“And then you get leaders of European nations – leading nations in the EU – who say ‘yeah, yeah, it’s an issue of life and death for humanity, but we will not come’. That’s an admirable level of hypocrisy,” the ambassador emphasized.

Suleymanov said COP29’s key outcome – the hard-won commitment by rich countries to raise climate finance for developing countries to $300bn (€291bn) a year – was a good achievement, but it could have been better.

“It could have been more. We tried to get more,” he said of the figure that was far below the $1.3trn target. But realistically, the western nations are the main donors and some of our European friends said one thing in public and another thing in private,” the diplomat noted.

He said overall it was a successful COP that would have a strong legacy, including the “Baku Call”, an initiative aimed at tackling interlinked climate, conflict and humanitarian crises.

Suleymanov said he hoped Ireland would play a leading role in the initiative.

The diplomat also highlighted the appointment of Terry Leyden as Azerbaijan’s first honorary consul in Ireland.

The article mentioned that according to the last census, just 73 Azerbaijani citizens live in Ireland and there are few tourists from the country.

“This is something we want to improve – more travel and contact to bring our countries together,” Suleymanov noted.

The ambassador also suggested Ireland could help with mine clearance in the Karabakh region over which Azerbaijan and Armenia fought several wars before Azerbaijan regained control in 2023.

A ceasefire was subsequently agreed and peace talks are ongoing, but the Ambassador said that rebuilding the region was hampered by landmines, which have killed more than 300 people since hostilities ended.

“All the positive things that happened, happened because of Azerbaijan and Armenia talking to each other directly. We don’t want anyone to come and interfere because when they do, they pursue their own interest,” he mentioned.

Suleymanov noted that Azerbaijan’s plans for economic development include investing in wind and solar power.

According to him, work is under way with Georgia, Hungary and Romania to develop an electricity interconnector under the Black Sea with the intention of exporting renewable power to Europe in the future.

“We began talking about transitioning to green sources, to a diversified energy mix, long before we knew that we were hosting COP29,” Elin Suleymanov added.

Ayten Abbasli

Special correspondent