Global Witness, BBC launch coordinated attack on Azerbaijan’s COP29 chairmanship

A wave of negative publications targeting Azerbaijan, particularly regarding the country’s chairmanship of COP29, is expected to emerge in the coming days.

Reliable sources indicate that the main players behind this new round of anti-Azerbaijan propaganda are the international non-governmental organisation Global Witness, known for its critical reports on Azerbaijan, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Caliber.Az reports per local media.

It has been noted that employees of Global Witness have been behaving more like intelligence operatives than representatives of a non-governmental organisation.

In early September, a representative from the Chinese investment firm EC Capital Holdings approached the Azerbaijani COP29 team, expressing interest in sponsoring COP29 and investing in the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).

However, this "businessman" was actually a Global Witness employee whose primary aim was to undermine Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of COP29 by associating it with the oil and gas sector.

The investment company appeared legitimate, with a registration number and a website created to support a fabricated "legend." The COP29 team engaged in discussions with EC Capital about potential sponsorship and various packages. While several collaboration options were considered, no contract was finalised as the parties could not reach an agreement.

During these discussions, the "investor" attempted to entrap the Azerbaijani COP29 team, for example, by requesting the removal of references to "sustainable development" and adherence to "environmental standards" from the contract.

He also sought assistance in connecting with SOCAR representatives, approaching the COP29 Executive Director, Deputy Minister of Energy Elnur Soltanov, for this purpose. It was made clear that Soltanov was speaking as the Deputy Minister of Energy, not as a representative of COP29, and he subsequently forwarded the investor's details (actually a Global Witness representative) to SOCAR.

Global Witness aims to highlight this contact as evidence of "flagrant disrespect" for environmental commitments by the COP29 team, despite SOCAR being a primary sponsor of COP29 and actively engaging in a substantial decarbonisation programme while developing its "green" energy initiatives.

In the days ahead, we can anticipate headlines suggesting a "collusion between COP29 and the oil and gas lobby" and allegations of "Azerbaijan’s attempts to broker oil and gas deals" during COP29.

In reality, there were no signed contracts, no meaningful discussions regarding specific "deals," and absolutely nothing that could be classified as a "corpus delicti" (body of the crime). Thus, we await yet another instance of Global Witness presenting an informational "empty shell," with the enthusiastic backing of the BBC.

By Aghakazim Guliyev