Even though that would improve Azerbaijan’s individual national emissions of greenhouse gases, it only raises the issue of polluters purchasing its gas exports.  ,
Export emissions are generally not included in climate finance, leaving nations that buy and use power with a burden of pollution.
It is why there should be increased attention on the overall energy network, from producer to seller to buyer, much of which has a strong American footprint, said Ms Kate Watters, director of Crude Accountability, a animal rights and economic watchdog for the Persian Basin.
She has serious concerns about the allegations of Azerbaijan’s weak human rights history, lack of transparency on key issues and rooted levels of corruption, byproducts of a resource-heavy, generally state-controlled business.
She cited the significant investments made by companies like BP, Total, and ExxonMobil, Europe’s growing dependence on its energy exports, and the international green funding flowing to solar power projects that are truly substituting in place of the national gas that supplies Azerbaijan’s oil sector.” I think one of the most important things to understand is our responsibility as Western consumers of fossil fuels in what’s happening in Azerbaijan best then,” she said.
Are they simply exporting their carbon pollution to Europe if we examine the entire supply chain from beginning to end? Does that actually address the concerns about how to achieve a more green coming and less carbon emissions? No, it merely pushes the bits around”, she said.
According to the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, published by Transparency International, Azerbaijan ranks 154th out of 180 locations with a score of 23 out of 100, making it one of the most crooked countries in the world.
In October, members of the German parliament highly condemned the” Azerbaijan regime’s historic home and extraterritorial repression of activists, journalists, opposition leaders, and people” and even labelled its “ongoing human rights abuses… incompatible with its hosting of the climate event”.
They requested that the EU-Azerbaijani strategic energy partnership be suspended.
The UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group also reviewed Azerbaijan’s human rights record for the fourth time in late 2023, and 319 recommendations were made.
The government agreed to adopt 185 of those, including measures related to civil and political rights, anti-corruption and national human rights legislation.
In order to “discredit the image of Azerbaijan and undermine its position,” President Ilham Aliyev has previously referred to allegations of corruption by his family and government as “insinuations or half truths.”