Opening speeches rarely contain such frank and unsparing political attacks, nor such open fossil fuel defenses.

Fossil fuels are a gift from God and giving them up is not realistic, the host of the Cop29 climate summit has said. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, defended his country’s oil and gas industry during opening remarks at the conference in the country’s capital Baku on Tuesday.

Oil and gas are 'gift from God', Azerbaijan president tells Cop29 climate summit - ‘Countries should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market, because the market needs them’ - Ilham Al