OPEC Secretary General tells COP29 oil is a gift from God

OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais on Wednesday told the COP29 climate summit in Baku that crude oil and natural gas were a gift from God, and that global warming talks should focus on cutting emissions not picking energy sources.

Haitham Al Ghais, Secretary General, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), arrives to deliver a statement during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan November 20, 2024.Reuters

His words echoed those of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who used his opening address to the summit to hit back at Western critics of his country's oil and gas industry, and also described those resources as a gift from God.

"They are indeed a gift of God," Al Ghais, a veteran Kuwaiti oil executive, said in a speech at the conference.

Benefits of oil explained at COP29

"They impact how we produce and package and transport food and how we undertake medical research, manufacture, distribute, medical supplies. I could go on forever."

Haitham Al Ghais, Secretary General, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), arrives to deliver a statement during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan November 20, 2024.Reuters

He said that world governments, which agreed to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at the 2015 summit in Paris, could achieve their climate targets without shunning petroleum.

"The focus of the Paris Agreement is reducing emissions, not choosing energy sources," he said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that technologies like carbon capture can tackle the climate impact of burning fossil fuels.