OPEC Secretary General tells COP29 oil is a gift from God

Baku (Reuters): OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais on Wednesday told the COP29 climate summit in Baku that crude oil and natural gas were a gift from God, and that global warming talks should focus on cutting emissions not picking energy sources.

The comments came as world governments seeking to limit the damage from global warming gathered in the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan to hash out a sweeping finance deal meant to help countries cut emissions and adapt to the changing climate.

"They are indeed a gift of God," Al Ghais, a veteran Kuwaiti oil executive, said about oil and gas in a speech at the conference.

"They impact how we produce and package and transport food and how we undertake medical research, manufacture and distribute medical supplies. I could go on forever," he added.

His words echoed those of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who used his opening address to the summit last week to hit back at Western critics of his country's oil and gas industry, and who also described those resources as a gift from God.

Al Ghais said that world governments, which had agreed to limit planetary warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels at the 2015 summit in Paris, could pursue their climate targets without shunning petroleum.

"The focus of the Paris Agreement is reducing emissions, not choosing energy sources," he said.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that technologies like carbon capture can tackle the climate impact of burning fossil fuels.

Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, Mohamed Hamel, a grouping of gas exporter nations, also spoke to the conference on Wednesday in support of fossil fuels.

"As the world's population grows, the economy expands, and human living conditions improve, the world will need more natural gas, not less," he said.

He added that he hoped that a COP29 deal on international climate finance would allow support for natural gas projects to help countries transition away from dirtier fuels like coal.

"The outcome of COP 29 should facilitate financing for natural gas projects and scaling up cleaner technologies such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage," he said.

"This is crucial for ensuring just inclusive and orderly energy transitions that leave no one behind," he added.

Climate scientists say the world is now likely to cross the 1.5°C threshold — beyond which catastrophic climate impacts could occur — in the early 2030s, if not before.

The world is currently on track for as much as 3.1°C of warming by the end of this century, according to the 2024 UN Emissions Gap report.