COP29 will bring several opportunities for Azerbaijan - US expert
Azerbaijan will host the COP29 Global Climate Summit at the end of this year, which will be a significant event for a number of reasons.
In a video interview with News.Az, Eugene Chausovsky, a senior analyst at the Newlines Institute, stated that like previous COPs, it will take stock of global carbon emissions and assess international efforts to tackle climate change. The event will also bring several opportunities for Azerbaijan itself."One such opportunity comes in the potential to boost Western engagement with Azerbaijan and the broader Caspian region, including the Caucasus and Central Asia. This region not only presents significant green energy potential to help the US and EU enhance energy security and combat climate change, but its strategic location can also help the West address broader foreign policy challenges, from Russia and China to mitigating instability within the Caspian region itself," the expert said.
"As such, there are several areas of engagement that will bear close watching in the lead-up to the COP29 Summit in November. The first area relates directly to the climate transition and sustainable energy cooperation. To be sure, there have already been significant efforts to expand such cooperation between the West and the Caspian region. For example, just a few months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU and Azerbaijan signed an MoU on a strategic energy partnership, which included expanding Azerbaijani natural gas exports to Europe to 20 billion cubic metres per year by 2027, as well as EU support for Azerbaijan to reduce methane flaring in its gas production," he pointed out.
"Last year, the US ramped up its engagement with Central Asian countries in the C5+1 format, which included the first head of state summit between US President Joe Biden and the five presidents of Central Asia, as well as the launching of the Critical Minerals Dialogue to expand clean energy cooperation. While these are necessary initial steps, the West must turn such MoUs and dialogue formats into a tangible expansion of sustainable energy ties with the Caspian states," he said, adding that one way to do so would be to increase private sector investment into this region from Western companies as a complement to state-led initiatives from both the US and EU.
"This would not only enable both parties to showcase their contribution to reducing global emissions, but would also enhance the climate transition of the fossil fuel-intensive Caspian region and offer Azerbaijan concrete joint projects to highlight at the upcoming COP Summit," the expert noted.
He also said that another opportunity would be to leverage cooperation in the green energy sector into building greater connectivity to and within the region, especially the Trans-Caspian Corridor. "The final area that the West should focus on is combating instability within the Caspian region," the expert added.
"As a recent military conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has shown, Russia's ability to play a mediating and peacekeeper role in the region has not been successful. This presents an opportunity for the US and EU to promote diplomacy and build a foundation for further regional connectivity enhancement. While there will be political and diplomatic differences between Baku, Yerevan, and the West, these should be managed more effectively to pursue common goals such as building greater economic connectivity and contributing to the energy transition," he pointed out, adding that there is much to be gained for Azerbaijan, the West, and the Caspian region as COP29 approaches.
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