Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said it’s important for oil- and natural gas-exporting nations to host global climate talks, particularly as they are also seeking to develop clean-energy sources.

One of the birth places of the oil industry, Azerbaijan was chosen to host COP29 this year. The Caspian Sea nation is the third oil and gas exporter in a row to host the talks after the United Arab Emirates last year and Egypt in 2022. COP28 in Dubai attracted criticism for involving the oil and gas industry more than any other incarnation of the annual climate talks, but it also negotiated the first agreement to call for a transition away from all fossil fuels.

“I think it’d be more important to hold such events in countries that produce oil and gas and which have a history of oil and gas,” Aliyev said in comments on his website. Azerbaijan, like the UAE, can live without clean energy but is investing in renewables to “contribute to our common cause,” he said.

The Azeri leader last week appointed his Ecology Minister Mukhtar Babayev as COP29 president-designate, drawing criticism as Babayev previously served in the state oil and gas company Socar. Aliyev rejected the criticism as a “dirty campaign” against his government, saying Babayev was in charge of environmental issues at Socar.

The UAE’s appointment of Sultan Al Jaber as COP28 president also triggered widespread criticism as he remained chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. 

Azerbaijan is the largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia and Kazakhstan and has also emerged as a natural gas exporter to Europe since 2020. The country shipped almost 12 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe last year and plans to increase the exports to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027.