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Prominent scientists and politicians are calling on the United Nations to not allow the UN climate conference to be hosted in countries that do not support the phase out of fossil fuels.
The appeal, in a letter published on Friday during the Cop29 conference in Baku, comes as climate groups released an analysis showing at least 1,773 lobbyists from the oil, gas, and coal industries were officially accredited to attend the UN meeting in Azerbaijan.
In Baku, the coalition Kick Big Polluters Out, which is supported by organisations like Transparency International, Global Witness, Greenpeace, and the Climate Action Network, released its analysis on Friday using publicly accessible data from the UN Climate Secretariat, it said.
The appeal to not allow those intent on producing energy with fossil fuels to host the conference follows criticism of picking Azerbaijan to host this year’s meeting, as the country is an authoritarian ex-Soviet republic that bases 90 per cent of its export economy on oil and gas.

In an open letter to UN Climate Chief Simon Stiell, the signatories said the UN must apply strict admission criteria to exclude countries as hosts that do not support the unanimously decided shift away from coal, oil, and gas.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev praised the climate-damaging energy sources oil and gas as a “gift from God” at this year’s Cop29 conference.
The letter’s signatories include Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, global ambassador of the Club of Rome, Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, as well as former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
They warned that global warming has not been stopped even after 28 annual climate conferences. Rather, they said that warming to more than 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100 could no longer be ruled out.
They want mechanisms to hold countries accountable when they ignore climate targets and commitments. Additionally, they stressed the need for “smaller, more frequent, and solution-oriented meetings” and called for limiting conference access.
The appeal comes as the coalition Kick Big Polluters Out in Baku noted that during last year’s Cop28 in Dubai, the capital of a Gulf State oil-producing nation, a record 2,450 fossil lobbyists attended, according to a previous analysis.

There were far more oil and gas lobbyists accredited than representatives of indigenous communities or nations threatened by the climate crisis.
The analysis of Cop29 showed that lobbyists received more access passes than all the delegations of the 10 countries most vulnerable to global warming. Nnimmo Bassey from Kick Big Polluters Out condemned the influence of the fossil fuel lobby on climate negotiations, saying decisive action is needed to eliminate such influences.
But the demands go both ways. On Wednesday, the climate change-denying government of Argentinian President Javier Milei recalled its representatives at Cop29. Milei rejects the widespread scientific view that man-made choices are causing climate change.
Argentina had sent more than 80 representatives to Baku for the two-week summit.
The burning of oil, gas, and coal releases the climate-damaging greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which dangerously heats the planet. At last year’s climate conference in Dubai, all 200 countries agreed to move away from these fossil fuels.
At Cop27 in Egypt, another oil state, there were 636. One explanation could be the fluctuating total number of participants: this year, according to reports, Baku has a significantly lower number with just over 52,000, compared to Dubai’s approximately 97,000 participants.
The climate conference rotates among world regions. Aside from that, the UN imposes hardly any requirements on host countries that wish to hold the meeting. Before Dubai, Egypt, another state heavily reliant on oil and gas, hosted Cop27.


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Prominent figures make appeal to the United Nations as Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, hosts Cop29


Prominent figures make appeal to the United Nations as Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, hosts Cop29.


Climate change

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Climate change diplomacy

UN urged to ban Cop climate talks in pro-fossil fuel countries

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Prominent figures make appeal to the United Nations as Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, hosts Cop29

Prominent figures make appeal to the United Nations as Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, hosts Cop29