Countries and companies involved in oil and gas extraction to be asked to join scheme aimed at tackling global heating
Fossil-fuel producing countries and companies are being asked to pay into a new international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of the climate crisis.
The climate investment fund is being set up by the Azerbaijan government, host country of the Cop29 UN climate summit in November.
Continue reading...Incident reignites concerns over crackdown on media before crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year
Western journalists were refused entry to an energy industry conference in Azerbaijan earlier this month, reigniting concerns over the state’s crackdown on the media ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year.
At least three journalists from the UK and France have told the Guardian that they felt “unsafe” after they were denied entry to the Baku Energy Week forum, despite registering with the event organisers weeks in advance.
Continue reading...Fossil-fuel dependent country hopes to provide bridge between wealthy global north and poor south at November gathering
Oil is inescapable in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The smell of it greets the visitor on arrival and from the shores of the Caspian Sea on which the city is built the tankers are eternally visible. Flares from refineries near the centre light up the night sky, and you do not have to travel far to see fields of “nodding donkeys”, small piston pump oil wells about 6 metres (20ft) tall, that look almost festive in their bright red and green livery.
It will be an interesting setting for the gathering of the 29th UN climate conference of the parties, which will take place at the Olympic Stadium in November.
Continue reading...Organisers of this year’s environmental conference hope cooperation on green issues could help ease global tensions
This year’s Cop29 UN climate summit will be the first “Cop of peace”, focusing on the prevention of future climate-fuelled conflicts and using international cooperation on green issues to help heal existing tensions, according to plans being drawn up by organisers.
Nations may be asked to observe a “Cop truce”, suspending hostilities for the fortnight-long duration of the conference, modelled on the Olympic truce, which is observed by most governments during the summer and winter Olympic Games.
Continue reading...Series of traumatic defeats has prompted a rethink in what was once seen as the most pro-Moscow of the ex-Soviet republics
With its waterfall, hot spring, orchards full of apricot blossom and a gorge through which the swollen Arpa River races, the town of Jermuk since Soviet times has been one of the most visited in Armenia. That was until just after midnight on 12 September 2022 when Azerbaijani forces surged over the border, advancing about 4 miles in a two-day push that left them in full control of the long mountain ridge overlooking the town.
“It was truly frightening. The forest was set on fire. It was like lightning coming down on us. It went on for two days. We did not know how it would end, and how to get our families out,” recalled Rubik Avakelyan, 69, sitting on a park bench.
Continue reading...Nikol Pashinyan urges calm after making concessions in attempt to avoid war with his country’s heavily armed neighbour
Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian prime minister facing four days of protests against his decision to hand four villages to Azerbaijan, has urged Armenians to recognise that the way the issue is handled will determine the viability of the future peace process with its neighbour.
In an interview with British journalists in his office, Pashinyan, the leader of Armenia’s velvet revolution in 2018, said the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan “need to convert the theoretical peace agenda into an actual peaceful reality”.
Continue reading...Officials held online meeting with business leaders despite flight of ethnic Armenians after military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh
The UK government faces criticism after officials appeared to urge British businesses to help rebuild disputed areas of Azerbaijan just weeks after the state’s military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh led more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee the region.
Officials from the UK Foreign Office and the business department held an online meeting with British business leaders in November to encourage companies to take advantage of the “great opportunity” to support Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev’s rebuilding agenda.
Continue reading...Boat drivers from former Soviet republics often have very little experience and no idea what they are doing is illegal, say NGOs
People smugglers are increasingly recruiting people from former Soviet republics in central Asia to pilot boats carrying migrants from Turkey to Italy, say NGOs and lawyers.
The migrants are taken by sea from Turkey to Italy, often using sailing boats, as an alternative to the longer overland route through the Balkans where border guards in Croatia and Slovenia have engaged in illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at the EU border.
Continue reading...Panel was originally composed of 28 men, a move condemned as ‘regressive’ and ‘shocking’
The president of Azerbaijan has added 12 women to the previously all-male organising committee for the Cop29 global climate summit, which the country will host in December.
The move follows a backlash after the Guardian reported the initial 28-man composition of the committee, which was called “regressive” by the She Changes Climate campaign group. “Climate change affects the whole world, not half of it,” the group said.
Continue reading...Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has met Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan for bilateral talks in St Petersburg
Azerbaijani officials have said the country could be closing in on a peace agreement with Armenia to end their decades-long conflict following its lightning offensive in September to take control of its Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In face of a decisive military advance, more than 100,000 people fled the mountainous south Caucasus enclave, which, following a war in the 1990s, had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia.
Continue reading...Ilham Aliyev will not attend meeting with Armenian prime minister amid anger over French decision to supply military aid to Yerevan
Azerbaijan will not attend an EU-brokered event in Spain where its president, Ilham Aliyev, was set to hold talks with his Armenian counterpart over the future of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Aliyev had been considering taking part in a meeting to discuss the breakaway region – which has largely emptied out after the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians – with the leaders of France, Germany, Armenia and the EU Council president, Charles Michel.
Continue reading...‘What is left for the UN to monitor?’ asks one refugee who crossed the border to escape
Nearly the entire ethnic Armenian population has left Nagorno-Karabakh, as the first United Nations mission arrived in the largely deserted mountainous region on Sunday.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said the United Nations team on the ground, the first UN mission to the region in 30 years, would “identify the humanitarian needs” both for people remaining and “the people that are on the move”.
Continue reading...After Baku’s success in Nagorno-Karabakh, it could attempt to encroach farther, locals believe
The beehives were in no man’s land. After the border clash near his village in April, Geram drove down to the fields where his family has been farming for decades and kept a small apiary.
But when he got near, he heard gunshots. The Azerbaijanis were firing at him from their new positions on the surrounding hilltops. He ran back to his car and never returned.
Continue reading...Death toll from fuel depot explosion on Monday rises to 68 as ethnic Armenians raise concerns about reprisals from Azerbaijan
Almost a quarter of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population have fled into Armenia since Azerbaijan launched an attack on the breakaway region last week, according to Armenia’s government.
Some 28,000 people – about 23% of the region’s population – scrambled to flee as soon as Azerbaijan lifted a 10-month blockade on the region’s only road to Armenia. That blockade had caused severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of Armenians, many residents feared reprisals.
Continue reading...Medical centres in Stepanakert at capacity after explosion, the cause of which remains unknown
Dozens of people are feared dead and hundreds more injured after a powerful explosion at a fuel storage depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as thousands of ethnic Armenians streamed out of the breakaway territory after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of it in a lightning offensive last week.
Most of those wounded were in a “severe or extremely severe” condition after the blast at the facility near the regional capital of Stepanakert on Monday evening, according to the Armenian health ministry. The death toll from the blast is expected to rise significantly, with more than 100 still listed as missing.
Continue reading...Armenians in region have been without adequate food or fuel supplies for months due to blockade by Azerbaijani forces
A Red Cross aid convoy headed to Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, the first since Azerbaijan retook the breakaway region three days ago, as ethnic Armenians there complained of being abandoned by the world.
The Armenians of Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, were forced to declare a ceasefire on 20 September after a lightning 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.
Continue reading...Deal includes provisions for local Armenian government to disband its local military, in capitulation to Azerbaijan
A ceasefire agreement has been reached a day after Azerbaijan launched a new military offensive against the local Armenian government in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, potentially averting a wider war but threatening the long-term existence of the ethnic Armenian enclave there.
The agreement took effect at 1pm local time and includes provisions for the local Armenian government to disband its local military, in a capitulation to Azerbaijan.
Continue reading...Bombardment of blockaded region could reopen 2020 war in which land was taken from Armenian population
Azerbaijan has said it has launched an “anti-terrorist” campaign in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, as bombing raids were reported in the regional capital of Stepanakert and at other Armenian positions.
The bombardment of the blockaded region, which local Armenians call Artsakh, could reopen a bloody 2020 war in which Azerbaijan retook land from a local Armenian population amid widespread accusations of war crimes.
Continue reading...Son calls on UK to intervene in case of Gubad Ibadoghlu, critic of Azerbaijani government who was arrested there in July
The family of a UK-based Azerbaijani academic and prominent opposition figure have raised concerns over his health after he was detained during a visit to the country and have called on the UK government to intervene.
Gubad Ibadoghlu, a senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, was arrested and held by Azerbaijan authorities while visiting family in July. He is facing up to 12 years in prison for the production, acquisition or sale of counterfeit money by an organized group and allegedly possessing extremist material – charges he denies.
Continue reading...Rivals have accused each other of initiating fire which killed seven people
South Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of initiating a fatal clash around the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region which killed seven soldiers.
The two neighbours – both formerly part of the Soviet Union – have fought repeatedly over the last 35 years for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but home to a mainly ethnic Armenian population.
Continue reading...