Eamon Ryan at COP29: The world needs "to build trust that we can stop climate change which threatens us all"

As hundreds of nodding rigs extracted the odorous black goo at the heart of the climate crisis within sight of Baku’s COP29 venue on Thursday, fears mounted inside that leaders were backsliding on a ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels.

Just days ago, Azerbaijan Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources and COP President Mukhtar Babayev urged his fellow politicians to “be brave” and deliver a “fair and ambitious deal”. But at the same press conference, he declined to answer how many fossil fuel deals his country has done during the UN climate summit and if that shows good leadership.

So the Irish Mirror decided to take a trip around Baku to see just how embedded fossil fuels are in daily life.

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The world’s first oil well was dug here in 1846 - it is what this country was built on. And from state oil company SOCAR’s logo, complete with three flames, mirrored in the three flame towers at the heart of Baku, it appears there is real pride in that fact.

It was this history and President Babayev’s fossil fuel past that sparked major concerns Azerbaijan could deliver the next steps the world needs to take if we are to limit ‘global boiling’ to 1.5 degrees. He did tell the Irish Mirror the “main oil and gas producing countries [have] already adopted decarbonisation programmes” in his non-answer about fossil fuel deals.

But the multitudes of nodding donkeys ripping oil from the earth between family homes - beside excavation works for what appears to be new wells - suggests Azerbaijan is nowhere near done with fossil fuels. Add that to the millipede-like oil trains weaving through to the mountains, the foreboding giant offshore rigs on the Caspian sea, miles and miles of gas pipes weaving through desolate countryside and the pollution all of this causes, which is clear in the air, in the water and on the ground.

The State might have tried to hide the huge oil tanks near where the UN climate talks are being held by covering them with pictures of wind turbines and seals - which, incidentally, are facing extinction in the Caspian Sea - but they can’t hide what’s in plain sight across the city.

According to local sources, climate is already impacting Azerbaijan in terms of water supply but the people are not really educated about it. We also understand they don’t see the rigs as ‘shocking’ as they’ve lived beside them all their lives. But we were told it’s the government that reaps the rewards from the oil and gas extraction, clearly polluting large swathes of Azerbaijan's land.

“Corruption will kill our state,” one local said. But despite the country’s fossil fuel present, Ireland’s Climate Minister Eamon Ryan says we have to “stop pointing the finger at any one country”.

“You could say the same thing about the US, a list of countries that are all involved in fossil fuels. I prefer to sit down and work with people.” But he did add: “Sticking just to the status quo for vested interests in the current fossil fuel system, that’s not acceptable.

“There is no point coming here as environment ministers if we don’t stand up for that first thing we all have to agree on. The vast majority of the countries in the world agree with that and the vast majority of our people agree with that because we are all at risk.

“Be you in Nepal or North Carolina, it’s the same phenomenon - climate change destroying lives. We all know there has been a backsliding... and an attempt to interpret what we agreed last year as a menu and actually taking back the language and taking back the commitment [to transition away from fossil fuels] - that has to stop.

“The world needs hope and confidence and to build trust that we can stop climate change which threatens us all.”

We will be bringing all the latest updates from the COP29 climate summit in Baku with support from Global Ireland. You can follow our environment correspondent on the ground @ShaunaReports on X/ @shaunacorr.bsky.social.

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