COP29 starts as it will probably go on – with protests over Israel and fossil fuel lobbying

Campaign group Fossil Free London staged a protest outside BP’s headquarters on the first day of the COP29 in Azerbaijan. It was over not only BP and the host nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, but both of their propping up of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

COP29 protests already begin

Protestors held a banner reading, ‘BP, stop fuelling genocide and climate breakdown’:

They demanded BP stop their oil and gas extraction, ‘hijacking’ the Conference of the Parties (COP) process, and ‘profiteering from genocide’:

The COP29 began in Baku, Azerbaijan today, with world leaders gathering to attempt to reach agreements to reduce global carbon emissions.

Azerbaijan: not exactly the best host

Azerbaijan is heavily dependent on its fossil fuel income, which makes up 90% of export revenues and 60% of state revenues. State-owned SOCAR and BP have a close, long-term  corporate relationship, recently agreeing to expand their oil and gas partnership exploring new fields to drill.

Azerbaijan’s Energy minister, Mukhtar Babyev, has spent 26 years working in SOCAR and was formerly their vice-president of ecology has been announced as the president for COP29.

Additionally, Tony Blair, who was involved in lobbying for the BTC oil pipeline in Azerbaijan and BP’s operations in Iraq following his invasion, has sought to assist in running the climate summit.

Israel also receives around 30% of its oil from Azerbaijan, via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. Majority owned by BP, with the second largest shareholder is SOCAR – the Azerbaijani national oil company – this oil has gone on to fuel Israeli military operations in Palestine and Lebanon and its genocide in Gaza.

Following ICJ’s ruling on Israel, human rights experts have warned that countries and corporations supplying oil to Israeli armed forces may be complicit in war crimes and genocide. 

The demonstration is responding to an international campaign coordinated by Energy Embargo for Palestine, Filistin İçin 1000 Genç, and the Palestinian-led Global Energy Embargo for Palestine.

COP29 intersects with so much more

It also comes as part of a series of actions on the intersections of COP29, the climate crisis and Palestine in London, culminating in the March for Global Climate Justice on Saturday 16 November.

Joanna Warrington, a campaigner with Fossil Free London, said:

It’s the very same fossil fuel giants that profit from the suffering of billions as our climate tips closer to collapse, which are fuelling and enabling Israel’s horrific colonial genocide. This is all playing out right in front of our world leaders, who sit clapping in the audience instead of standing up to protect human rights and life.

Climate crisis and genocide are being made and supported here in London. Our global political processes are being polluted by corporations like BP that continue to tear up our society so that the resultant blood flow can carry massive profits to them.

Featured image and additional images via Fossil Free London