Iran president urged to skip COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has been urged to skip his planned visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, next week to attend this year's United Nations climate change summit, known as COP29.

The semi-official Fars news agency said in an article published on Wednesday that Pezeshkian should not attend the COP29 summit for various reasons, including reports suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be present in the summit.

It also said that Azerbaijan has been “problematic” for Iran in the past years mainly because of its efforts to change the geopolitical maps of the region following its victory over Armenia in the 2020 war on Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Logically, it would be wise for the Iranian delegation not to participate in the summit, let alone that the president attends it,” said the article.

However, the article also criticized United Nations climate change policies and said that agreeing to decisions planned to be adopted in COP29 would be “against Iran’s national interests”.

It added that accepting UN demands on climate change, which requires countries to invest heavily to reform the way they produce and consume energy, would inflict huge financial losses on Iran as a country which still relies on fossil fuels for a bulk of its energy needs.

It said experts are still critical of a former Iranian administration’s decision in 2016 to sign up to the Paris Agreement, which requires countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by 12% in a relatively short period.

“That would cause the country’s economy to shrink and will cost some $52 billion,” said the article

The public relations office of the Iranian Presidency said on Monday that Pezeshkian will attend the COP29 summit which is planned to begin on November 11.

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