Greta Thunberg protests against Azerbaijan hosting global climate summit

Climate activist Greta Thunberg protests Azerbaijan hosting UN climate talks, criticizing greenwashing and repressive policies.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Monday (November 11, 2024) attended a rally in Georgia to protest against Azerbaijan hosting the annual United Nations climate talks.

Ms. Thunberg and scores of other activists who rallied in Tbilisi, the capital of the South Caucasus nation, argued that Azerbaijan doesn't deserve to host the climate talks because of its repressive policies.

U.N. climate talks, called COP29, opened Monday (November 11, 2024) in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a major oil producer where the world’s first oil well was drilled.

Thunberg described Azerbaijan as “a repressive, occupying state, which has committed ethnic cleansing, and which is continuing cracking down on Azerbaijani civil society." She charged that the Caspian Sea nation has used the summit as “a chance to greenwash their crimes and human rights abuses.”

"We can't give them any legitimacy in this situation, which is why we are standing here and saying no to greenwashing and no to the Azerbaijani regime,” she said.

Azerbaijan has committed to clean energy projects, but critics have argued that’s just to export more oil and gas.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been in power since 2003 when he succeeded his father who died after ruling the oil-rich nation for the previous decade. He has been accused by critics of intolerance to dissent and freedom of speech.