Azerbaijan Names Ecology Minister and Ex-Oil Exec as COP29 Chief
Mukhtar Babayev during the COP28 Climate Summit, in Dubai, on Dec. 9.
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Azerbaijan chose Ecology Minister Mukhtar Babayev, who worked for over two decades at the state oil and and gas company before entering government, to head the next round of global climate talks: COP29 to be held later this year in Baku.
Babayev was appointed COP29 president-designate and Yalchin Rafiyev as lead negotiator for the climate summit, according to the COP28 presidency account on X. Babayev worked at the state energy company Socar from 1994 until 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile.