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The U.N. climate summit known as COP29 is underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, where negotiators are trying to make progress on reducing emissions and preventing the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Many activists, however, have criticized the decision to hold the talks in an authoritarian petrostate. The host country is also facing accusations that it is using the climate talks for business, after the head of the talks, Elnur Soltanov, was caught in a secret recording promoting oil and gas deals. That sting was organized by the group Global Witness, which put forward a fake investor. “In exchange for just the promise of sponsorship money, that got us to the heart of the COP29,” says Lela Stanley, an investigator at Global Witness. “We need the U.N. to ban petro interests from sitting at the table, from influencing the COP.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show talking about the U.N. climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. It’s entered its third day. On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres issued a dire warning.

SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES: The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side.

AMY GOODMAN: Many climate activists have criticized the decision to hold the talks in Azerbaijan, an authoritarian petrostate. Azerbaijan is also facing accusations it’s using the climate talks to make future fossil fuel deals.

Well, the group Global Witness has released a secret recording of Elnur Soltanov, the chief executive of the climate talks known as COP29. An undercover investigator with Global Witness posed as a fossil fuel investor and held an online meeting with Soltanov during which he discussed possible fossil fuel deals.

ELNUR SOLTANOV: As I said, we have a lot of pipeline infrastructure. We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed. We have a lot of green projects that SOCAR is very interested in. There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established, potential joint ventures. Our SOCAR trading is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia. So, to me, these are the possibilities to explore.

AMY GOODMAN: Those were the words of Elnur Soltanov, the chief executive of the U.N. climate talks in Azerbaijan.

We go now to Lela Stanley, interim head of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness, joining us from Philadelphia.

Lela, thanks for being with us. So, talk about the significance of what he admitted to your group, albeit he thought he was talking to a fossil fuel investor and thought he could make a deal during the U.N. climate summit, that he’s heading.

LELA STANLEY: That’s right.........

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