President of Azerbaijan addresses COP29 Leaders

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev addressed the World Leaders' Climate Action Summit in Baku, welcoming global delegations

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev addressed the World Leaders' Climate Action Summit in Baku, welcoming global delegations.

His speech marked the official start of COP29’s high-level discussions.

"When they call us 'petrostate' now today, this is not fair, and it only demonstrates the lack of political culture and knowledge. Today, Azerbaijan's share in global oil production is 0.7(%), in global gas production (it) is 0.9%. But fake news media of the country which is (the) number one oil and gas producer in the world and produces 30 times more oil than Azerbaijan, call us 'petrostate'", President Ilham Aliyev stated.

He said that Azerbaijan's share in global gas emissions is only 0.1%.

"I have to bring these figures to the attention of our audience," explained the President, "because right after Azerbaijan was elected as a host country of COP29, we became a target of a coordinated, well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail."

"Two years ago, Azerbaijan and the European Commission signed Declaration on Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy. But it was not our idea. It was a proposal of European Commission as the President of European Commission came to Baku two years ago to sign this document with us because they needed our gas due to the change (in the) geopolitical situation", President of Azerbaijan said.

"They used all the tools in their possession to launch a campaign to boycott COP29 in Baku. And I have bad news for them: we have 72,000 registered participants from 196 countries", President Ilham Aliyev said addressing World Leaders' Climate Action Summit participants.

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