NATO Chief Calls Climate Change 'Crisis Multiplier' With Implications For Global Security

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) underlined the importance of combating climate change, referring to it as a "crisis multiplier" with implications for global security.

Crisis Multiplier

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that the challenge is that the world needs energy while there is a need to fight global warming.

He made the remarks during a press conference in Baku alongside Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose energy-rich country will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) this November.

Stoltenberg praised Azerbaijan's essential role in delivering natural gas to major NATO countries.

"Climate change matters for security and therefore it matters for NATO, climate change is a crisis multiplier," he added.

Stoltenberg also praised Azerbaijan for its investments in alternative energy, emphasizing the country's "great potential" as a provider of hydropower and solar power to European markets.

Climate Summit

Environmentalists have criticized the idea of convening a climate summit in Azerbaijan, an oil and gas producer.

Azerbaijan's economy relies on oil and gas, and its current objective-to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by 2030 and 40% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels-falls far short of the net zero level that experts say the world must attain by 2050 to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

But the tightly controlled Caspian nation is seeking to change its reputation as a polluting authoritarian state.

Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, stated that his former Soviet country has begun preparations to explore upgrading its national climate change commitment (NDC).

"It is not only a chance for Azerbaijan, but all other countries to prepare and announce the upgraded NDCs in Baku in November this year," Babayev said.

Babayev, who previously spent two decades at Azerbaijan's state-owned oil and gas company, did not identify the revised aim.

Campaigners and some climate scientists have criticized his selection for perpetuating a pattern of individuals with close ties to the oil and gas business leading global climate change negotiations.

According to US data for 2022, oil and gas account for 91% of Azerbaijan's exports. Aliyev stated that his country is a "pan-European gas supplier" with an ambitious green transition strategy.

He described Azerbaijan's selection as the host of COP29 from November 11 to 24 as a "sign of recognition of our efforts on green transition".

The climate conference will be hosted by an oil superpower for the second consecutive year, with the 2023 event taking place in the United Arab Emirates.

Representatives from almost 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit to begin lowering global fossil fuel consumption in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, signaling the end of the oil age.

More than 100 countries fought hard for strong language in the COP28 accord to "phase out" oil, gas, and coal use, but were met with significant opposition from the Saudi Arabia-led oil producer group OPEC, which stated that the world can reduce emissions without avoiding specific fuels.