Western pressure on Azerbaijan over climate issues – futile Russian MFA says

Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova has said that attempts by Western powers to pressure Azerbaijan on various issues, including climate change, are deemed futile and unprecedented.

Zakharova made these remarks during a briefing in response to a question from Baku TV, Caliber.Az reports.

“It is pointless to pressure Azerbaijan. There have been numerous attempts to do so on various issues. The core of the matter is not just the principled stance against exerting pressure on sovereign nations. The topic of climate change requires genuine involvement from experts. It should not become another political tool that the US wields to force through favourable outcomes. Such provocations are used to artificially generate hype around the popular climate issue. In reality, the US and other Western countries are effectively sabotaging the agreement on a new collective quantitative target for climate financing, as well as reaching a consensus on establishing an international carbon credit market,” she said.

Zakharova noted that this tactic used by the US is a classic strategy that repeats itself annually before the session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP).

“Every year, ahead of the session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Washington increases pressure on the host country, especially if it is a US satellite. We saw this in 2022 before the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, and the same happened last year in Dubai. Now, we are witnessing a similar escalation of pressure on Azerbaijan under a fabricated pretext,” she added.

By Naila Huseynova