COP29 in Baku demonstrated that the world’s majority not only successfully addresses climate challenges with its own resources but is also capable of developing its own approach.
In essence, the UN climate conference, successfully hosted by Azerbaijan, can be described as a political-economic EXPO of a new kind, based on scientific components and new geopolitical realities. The timing of the creation and holding of two global forums, EXPO and COP, paints a comprehensive picture of an era shift. The idea of the World Expos, which emerged at the turn of the 19th century, symbolized industrialization and served as the first collective platform for showcasing human technical and engineering achievements.
However, humanity has now entered a global post-industrial era, characterized by a fundamentally different level of involvement of various regions in global affairs. Today, even industrially underdeveloped countries have the opportunity to assert themselves with new tools in both politics and economics.
How France Was Counted as a Defeat
The hegemony of the old centers of the “golden billion” is dissolving, and the Western management lines are losing their vertical control potential, as horizontal connections emerge, uniting various regions of the planet and creating a new context for discussing traditional issues—access to resources, equal distribution of technologies, and improving quality of life.
Who could have imagined just ten years ago that Europe would listen to Azerbaijan’s voice on gas and electricity supplies?
Who could have thought that France, one of the two economic engines of the EU, would, overcoming imperial arrogance, be forced to reckon with Azerbaijan’s entry into the world political arena, rented by the strongest?
For the first time in many years, Paris found itself in an embarrassing position: by refusing to participate in COP29, President Macron acknowledged what analysts are saying today—that France not only lost influence over its former colonies in Central Africa, not only discredited itself as one of the leading EU countries, but also suffered an embarrassing defeat in its attempts to establish itself in the South Caucasus region. And it did not lose to a post-colonial Russia, but to small but, as it turned out, quite an influential Azerbaijan. So Baku can consider Paris’s absence from COP29 as a victory by points.
It can confidently be said that global climate issues have neutralized the distance between countries and the inviolability of borders. Today, they concern not only London, Washington, Beijing, and Moscow, but also such deep-Asian countries as Afghanistan, Nepal, Mongolia… and all of them gathered in Baku.
During the COP29 forum events, we see how, under the “sauce” of climate, elements of politics and business are intriguingly mixed, observing in Baku a Babel of African bloggers, American coaches, German eco-activists, and preachers of Vedic wisdom from India…
It is clear that for the countries hosting COP conferences, as with past world EXPOs, such large-scale and representative events are not only an excellent opportunity to invest in creating a highly attractive image but also a powerful political influence tool on the establishment of various countries. This side of the COP product attracted Azerbaijan, which invested significant effort and funds into the high-quality installation of the forum franchise.
Baku was well-prepared for organizing and hosting COP29 and today rightly reaps the fruits of its work. Many forum guests, visiting the Azerbaijani capital for the first time, received a unique opportunity to learn about the country, its history, traditions, and culture. And the new connections established in Baku may, in the future, either turn into business projects or strengthen intercultural dialogue factors.
The Eastern Garden Is Not Visible from the Stone Jungles of the West
Azerbaijan invited leaders and representatives of elites from many countries—both from the “golden billion” and from the Third World.
However, the main emphasis in President Ilham Aliyev’s agenda was on a group of Azerbaijan’s regional partners and developing countries. This is particularly noticeable in the statistics of the Azerbaijani leader’s meetings. One could say that in the Baku format of COP29, political changes both at the regional and global levels were reflected like in a mirror.
When political scientists talk about changing the rules of the game, they mean the imbalance in the ratio of geopolitical forces. In the context of COP issues, this refers to a situation where a narrow group of states has exhausted its ability to define the behavior of the entire international community. The overwhelming majority of countries’ desire for independence, based on respect for the interests of others, forms the structural basis for the emerging regional and possibly global order. In this sense, Baku proved to be a prudent and far-sighted ambassador, a herald of these changes, providing a platform for COP29 and organizing a direct dialogue between the East and South with the West.
The most long-standing problem is that, as before, the West views the East, in British terms, “without taking off the cork helmet.” That is, it continues to dominate in a “top-down” conceptual framework, and under no circumstances the other way around.
It is important to note that, as a “source of power,” the West dominates not so much through technology and weapons but through the belief that this part of the world is home to the enlightened, missionary man—a person carrying the burden of arrogant restructuring. The West is first according to its own scale of values; it is the standard. Using comparisons made by the soon-to-depart European diplomacy boss Josep Borrell, Europe is a garden, and the “non-Europe” is the jungle.
It is clear that for Western politicians and thinkers, their garden is beautiful and just, as are its gardeners, who strive to change and civilize the world of the East, placing its resources in the “right” hands of technologists, and eventually turning the Eastern man into a Westerner.
Let us not idealize the East. It is far from homogeneous, with many of its own ideas and political constructs. But, as a rule, it does not export missionary work and certainly does not strive to turn a Westerner into an Easterner, except in rare cases as a reaction to Western expansion.
“…If we are the jungle, then stay away from us and do not interfere with our affairs,” said President Ilham Aliyev bluntly, speaking at the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) summit.
So, what are “our affairs,” what is our agenda in the eco-economics issue?
It is the same as Azerbaijan articulated during the pandemic on behalf of the “Non-Aligned Movement”—fair distribution of the benefits of technology and key resources.
Back then, this concerned the fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. In the current context, it involves agreeing on a new collective goal in climate financing for the benefit of developing countries and the global majority.
Baku puts forward a postulate that support for developing countries must be real and meet the conditions in which these countries find themselves.
It is important that the transition to low-emission energy be carried out without hindering the development of low-income countries. As Ilham Aliyev stated, the global warming issue should not be used as an excuse for discrimination, unfair competition, or imposing artificial restrictions.
Lastly, Azerbaijan advocates for the introduction of practical mechanisms for implementing international environmental agreements on clear principles, supported by all, not selective scientific data. Azerbaijan stands for the creation of a unified system for evaluating the quality of climate projects without harming the economies of the Eastern world, the global South, and the global majority.
Ilgar Huseynov
Translated from haqqin.az
