The Street Circuit Hosting A Climate Summit

How Formula 1 helped Azerbaijan's capital city win the COP29 host bid

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A year ago, I found myself in the Chilean desert writing about how utilities were investing in electric motorsport series. 8,896 miles away in Abu Dhabi, world leaders converged at COP28, the annual climate summit that acts as an environmental “check-up” among United Nations members. Formula E executives attended the conference to discuss how electric racing would push the automotive sector into a clean and green future free of fossil fuels. 

This week, those same leaders huddled around conference tables and stood behind lecterns in a city familiar to Formula 1 fans: Baku, Azerbaijan. The Baku Street Circuit sits just 7.5 miles away from the climate summit. As Formula 1 races towards a 2030 net-zero goal, the Grand Prix host city’s new status as an eco-hero concerns the upper echelon of motorsport. After all, the credibility that the sport gave the city helped boost its COP29 bid.

By Friday, the conference aims to ensure member states are on track and reaffirm the current global target: collectively reducing 78 billion tons of emissions by 2050. Environmental advocates and some member states have urged the climate talks to allocate $1 trillion to poorer nations as they attempt to adapt to the effects of climate change. 

But not everyone is convinced Baku deserved being crowned host. 

On Monday, TIME published an article titled “Azerbaijan Should Never Have Been COP Host.” The publication said that the country hosting COP29 was an “Orwellian tragedy” because of the wealth of the state in contrast to its citizens. The oil state has been criticized for its human rights and environmental violations, including jailing and exiling its climate protesters, along with allegedly laundering $2.9 billion to bribe American and European journalists and politicians between 2012 and 2014. Most recently, the country pushed indigenous Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory near the border of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russia acted as peacekeeper and Armenia, also bidding for COP29 host, backed out of its climate summit offer in exchange for 32 Armenian prisoners of war. Considered a violent siege made possible through ethnic cleansing, the war led to Azerbaijan claiming the area and crowning it as the first net zero region. 

What “net zero” means in a country that nearly entirely relies on fossil fuels to drive its economy raises eyebrows. 

Last year’s climate talks had its own criticism. Environmentalists slammed organizers for appointing Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati Minister of Industry and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as the president-designate. As the summit came to a close, the drawn-up noncommittal language around phasing out fossil fuels left many to question: What is the purpose of these annual talks? 

On November 11, as Baku Stadium opened its doors to the United Nations, the same question emerged. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) released a series of articles about “Why It Matters That Azerbaijan Is Hosting the COP29 Climate Summit” and encouraged readers to “Know Your Host” as “thousands of political and business leaders enjoy the hospitality of one of the world’s most repressive and corrupt regimes.” Greta Thunberg boycotted the event, saying it was a strategy to “greenwash their crimes.” 

At least four top-ranking COP29 leaders are tied to Azerbaijan’s national oil company, however, a lack of state transparency laws means critics estimate more conflicts of interest. The Guardian critiqued COP29 for laying out a red carpet for oil bosses and OCCRP reported that the summit’s official partner was linked to the ruling family, the Aliyevs. An Armenian newspaper argued that the climate talks will only make the family wealthier. 

Simon Maghakyan, a political scientist specializing in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, wrote in TIME that 20 Formula 1 cars speeding down Neftchilar Avenue helped Azerbaijan become short-listed for COP29 host. “The key to its success may well be how it has courted some of the world’s elites in ways that have put Azerbaijan in the spotlight in recent years. This long-term charm offensive, which serves to deflect criticism of Aliyev’s government and rebrand Azerbaijan as a vibrant destination, includes flying in celebrities and hosting international events like Formula 1.” 

Formula 1’s annual visit to Azerbaijan, joining the calendar in 2016, has often been met with disapproval — so have its race weekends in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China and Russia. The sport’s three races in America have rarely been criticized, pointed out Defector Media writer Kathryn Xu in 2021. 

Formula 1, however, not only helped Azerbaijan win its COP29 host bid but will continue to provide the country with an eco-distraction as the racing series becomes greener, averting spectators’ eyes away from oil fields.

In turn 19 at the Baku Street Circuit, a “Green Post” marks environmentally friendly equipment and marshals wearing recycled coveralls. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix’s former title sponsor was the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the current official event sponsor is Bakcell, a telecommunications company that was founded in a joint venture between Azerbaijan and Israel. The nation is Israel’s top oil provider. 

The race, aiming to reach Formula 1’s 2030 carbon neutrality goal, receives its funding from a combination of the country’s economy, sponsors and the national budget. Oil and gas account for over 50 percent of the country’s revenues and 95 percent of export profits. 

Unlike the electric SUVs flipping in Chile and the net zero model the eco-racing series was founded on, Formula 1 must adapt a 1950s model of racing to climate change’s impending call to action, and luckily, it has been tweaking its regulations every few years to catch up. When I was reporting on the Indy 500 in May, an environmental specialist told me that racing series like Formula 1 and IndyCar are more representative of the current race to reach an emissions-free future. 

What I learned in both the Atacama desert and the, less dry, Indianapolis Motor Speedway was that utilities, oil and gas companies cannot be excluded from the conversation. Formula 1 has the global stage, cash flow and elite guest list, including nearly 75 years of petroleum sponsors, to marry the two: a net zero future and those who will benefit from slowing down looming environmental regulations. 

Whether that marriage needs to be consecrated in a country with current human rights abuse allegations, boosting its image and economy through what some label as “greenwashing,” is up for debate.