The U.N. climate summit is underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, where government officials, civil society leaders and climate activists are gathered as the planet is on track, yet again, to suffer its hottest year on record and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reach record highs. Recent data shows wealthy countries, including the U.S. and China, embarked on an “oil and gas exploration spree” despite signing on to an agreement at last year’s COP to transition away from coal, oil and gas. Financing for poor nations facing the brunt of the climate collapse will be a top issue at this year’s COP29.

Ahead of the summit, the group Global Witness released covert recordings of Azerbaijan’s COP29 chief executive Elnur Soltanov promoting possible fossil fuel deals with someone posing as an investor. The fake investor told Soltanov they were considering sponsoring COP29 in exchange for deals with Azerbaijan’s state energy firm, SOCAR. This is Soltanov.

Elnur Soltanov: “As I said, we have a lot of pipeline infrastructure. We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed. We have a lot of green projects that SOCAR is very interested in. There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established, potential joint ventures. Our SOCAR trading is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia. So, to me, these are the possibilities to explore.”

Meanwhile, many delegates at COP29 are bracing for the incoming Trump presidency. Trump’s transition team is reportedly already preparing to once again withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.