COP29 host Azerbaijan hits out at West in defence of oil and gas industry

World leaders attending the United Nations climate change conference, known as COP29, pose for a family photo in Baku, Azerbaijan November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

BAKU (Reuters) -The president of Azerbaijan, host of this year's U.N. climate summit, lashed out at Western critics of his country's oil and gas industry on Tuesday.

Speaking in his keynote address at the COP29 climate summit, where nearly 200 nations are negotiating global action on climate change, President Ilham Aliyev described his country as a victim of a "well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail".