Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Today, almost 180 years on from the birth of the oil industry in Baku, petroleum and petroleum-derived products continue to shape how we heat and cool our homes, construct our buildings and transport ourselves from ‘a’ to ‘b.’
Oil and gas remain vital to producers and consumers around the world. As Azerbaijan’s President, HE Ilham Aliyev emphasized at the opening of COP29, they are indeed a ‘Gift from God’.
They impact how we produce, package and transport food and how we undertake medical research, manufacture and distribute medical supplies. I could go on.
However, access to the benefits of these products – benefits often taken for granted – is far from universal. There remain 685 million people who do not have access to electricity and 2.1 billion who continue to rely on unsafe and inefficient fuels for cooking.
The great challenge at hand is ensuring energy accessibility, meeting rising energy demand, enhancing energy security while maintaining energy affordability, as well as reducing global emissions.
OPEC has consistently advocated a balanced approach where nothing and no-one is dismissed. We need to embrace all-energies, leverage all available technologies, and ensure that the needs of all peoples around the world are taken into account.
This means recognizing that the focus of the Paris Agreement is on reducing emissions, not selecting energy sources.
It also means developing, transferring, and financing all forms of viable technologies. And it means developed countries fulfilling their obligations to meet funding gaps and scale up climate finance.
Each Party will have to chart its own path to a sustainable future. The capacities, national circumstances, and development priorities of all countries must be considered to ensure that no one is left behind.
What is clear is that no ‘one-size-fits all’ prescription can overcome our climate and energy challenges. Inclusive dialogue and international cooperation, just as our Azerbaijani hosts have adopted, will be necessary as together, we work towards building a sustainable future for all.
We thank our Azerbaijani hosts for their gracious hospitality and the leadership they have shown in climate negotiations.
Thank you.