Environmental organizations were incredulous when they learned that COP29, the next United Nations World Climate Change Conference, would be held in Baku, Azerbaijan this November.

A fossil-fuels heavyweight, the small Caucasus country the size of Austria produces 34 billion cubic meters of gas and 35 million tons of oil per year. And fossil fuels amount to around 90% of the country's exports.

On the sidelines of the COP preparatory conference in Bonn over the last two weeks, Environment Minister Mukhtar Babayev said that his country plans to continue expanding natural gas production in the coming years. However, Baku also wants to invest in renewable energies "at the same time," the minister, who will also chair COP29, told news agency AFP.

"I think in parallel — natural gas production and renewables — possibly will move together at the same time," he said.

Critics are unimpressed with his plans. Babayev is a "former oil executive from an authoritarian petrostate," Alice Harrison from the international environmental organization Global Witness said back in January. German climate NGO Germanwatch declared around the same time that Baku was a "highly problematic" choice for COP29.

While such criticism can be voiced safely from abroad, domestic media and environmental activists in Azerbaijan don't enjoy the same freedom. According to Human........

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