The Australian Greens have released a public statement on the political party’s website slamming Azerbaijan alongside the international community’s top diplomatic body, the United Nations, for its decision to host COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia.
The federal cross-bench political power has cited the country’s abysmal human rights record and its role in perpetuating the climate crisis through oil and gas exports and stated that the “United Nation’s organisers should have selected a different host country for COP29.”
In the lead-up to the statement, the ANC-AU met with Australian Greens Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele John on two occasions to discuss the Conference and more recently wrote to the Australian Greens Leader and Climate Change Spokesperson, Mr Adam Bandt MP on 14 August 2024, to relay the community’s concerns.
The ANC-AU has welcomed the statement, which reads: “The Azerbaijan government has a long history of human rights abuses against its own citizens and provocations and violations on the world stage. This includes the violent crackdown on environmental protests and the illegal annexation of the Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.”
Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia Michael Kolokossian said, “ Those claiming that Armenia has supported Azerbaijan’s bid to host COP29 very conveniently forget that Azerbaijani authorities are holding a proverbial gun at Armenia’s head around the negotiation table. The United Nations should have known better and prevented a regime from buying and bullying its way to hosting a glitzy global conference right after it has ethnically cleansed over 100,000 people from their homes.”
The Australian Greens are the only major Australian political party to publicly denounce the decision to host COP29 in Azerbaijan. They join the Federal Liberal Member for Deakin Michael Sukkar MP and NSW and Victorian Upper House parliamentarians The Hon. Jacqui Munro MLC and Renee Heath MP, who have denounced the decision and called on Australians to stay home.
Read the Australian Greens full statement by clicking the link below.
https://greens.org.au/news/greens-statement-cop29