PARIS: In response to “unacceptable” remarks made by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the Environment Minister of France, decided on Wednesday to boycott the COP29 global climate change meeting in Baku.
In foreign areas, such as New Caledonia in the South Pacific, where protests over a contentious ballot change in May had killed 13 people this year, Aliyev has accused France of “crimes” and “human rights violations.”
Pannier-Runacher addressed the French Senate, saying, “President Aliyev’s remarks against France and Europe as the COP29 opened in Baku are unacceptable.”
She also said that the leader of Azerbaijan was using “the fight against climate change for a shameful personal agenda.”
Corsica and other island territories were allegedly “under colonial yoke” by Paris, according to Aliyev.
“The administration of President (Emmanuel) Macron killed 13 people and wounded 169 … during legitimate protests by the Kanak people in New Caledonia,” Aliyev had previously claimed.
Midway through May, violence erupted in New Caledonia, a region northeast of Australia, over Paris’s proposed vote reforms, which the indigenous Kanak people feel will permanently marginalize them and thwart their aspirations for independence.
The archipelago, which is some 17,000 kilometers from Paris and has a population of about 270,000, received thousands of French troops and police.
Since Macron scheduled legislative elections in June, a new government has abandoned the reform.
However, Prime Minister Michel Barnier declared last month that the territory’s local elections will be postponed until the end of next year due to the scope of the violence and damage.
The colonial yoke
On Wednesday, Aliyev accused France of keeping Paris’s remote offshore island regions and the Mediterranean island of Corsica “under colonial yoke.”
In what appears to be an attempt to criticize Paris, which has long backed Baku’s bitter neighbor Armenia, Azerbaijan has hosted a gathering of pro-independence movements from French overseas territories.
French Minister Pannier-Runacher described Aliyev’s recent attacks as “a flagrant violation of the code of conduct” that typically governs the historic UN climate change talks.
“There is no justification for direct attacks on our nation, its institutions, and its territories,” she continued.
Additionally, she criticized “Azerbaijan’s words in favor of fossil energy.”
“Highest aspirations”
In his opening remarks at the COP on Tuesday, the president of Azerbaijan referred to gas and oil as “a gift of the God.”
According to Pannier-Runacher, President Aliyev’s vehement statements were “unworthy of the COP presidency.”
At the summit in Azerbaijan, where Brazil and Britain set increased emission targets, she intended to highlight a “positive dynamic.”
“France’s negotiating teams will spare no effort, with my support from a distance … to protect the planet and our populations,” she said, despite the fact that President Macron and Premier Barnier encouraged Pannier-Runacher to participate virtually.
According to Pannier-Runacher, “we will continue to argue for the highest level of ambition in implementing the Paris Accord” of 2015.
