Azerbaijan is expected to host the UN Climate Summit in 2024

The next United Nations climate change summit looks set to take place in Azerbaijan, a country spokesman said on Saturday, resolving a bitter months-long political standoff over which country should host the 2024 talks.

Azerbaijan would be the third major oil and gas producer in a row to host the annual U.N. negotiations on tackling global warming, largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels. This year’s summit, known as COP28, will be held in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s seventh-largest oil producer.

The government of Azerbaijan is considered authoritarian by many analysts. Human rights groups have documented widespread corruption and political repression during the 20-year rule of the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

Lingering uncertainty over which country will host the next climate summit has cast a shadow on the current talks in Dubai, as tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine nearly derailed diplomats’ ability to find a new host. As the nearly 200 countries gathered here focus on more complex questions, such as whether and how to curb their use of fossil fuels, the inability to select a location for the next conference loomed as a troubling sign for global cooperation .

Traditionally, the UN climate summit would take place in a different part of the world every year. The Eastern European group, which includes former Soviet states, would anchor the talks in 2024 and had to reach a consensus on which of its members would host. But Russia blocked the selection of any country that had condemned its invasion of Ukraine, vetoing potential candidates such as Bulgaria, Slovenia and Moldova.

At the same time, Armenia and Azerbaijan had threatened to veto each other’s bids. In September, Azerbaijan forcibly retook an Armenian-backed enclave, the latest battle in a long-simmering conflict between the two countries over the disputed territory. Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians, in some cases, fled an Azerbaijani offensive called ethnic cleansing.

A breakthrough came on Friday when Armenia said it would support Azerbaijan’s proposal to host the next climate change conference. Although the two countries have not yet reached a formal peace agreement, the governments remain issue the decision as a “gesture of goodwill” in a joint statement.

Some climate experts welcomed the end of the standoff. Over the next two years, countries must write and submit new, updated national plans to reduce emissions between 2030 and 2035. But without a new host country, preparations were difficult to get started.

“It’s good that the uncertainty about who will host COP29 is over,” said Kaveh Guilanpour, vice president of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions.

Other activists raised concerns about a new climate conference being held in an authoritarian country that gets much of its revenue from oil and gas. The annual summits traditionally include protests and marches by civil society groups, although these activities have been restricted this year in the politically repressive United Arab Emirates.

David Tong, a campaigner at Oil Change International, a group calling for an end to the use of oil and gas, said in a statement that the United Nations must guarantee freedom of expression for civil society groups and the media and have a “strict conflict of interest policy on fossil fuels.

“Wherever the climate talks take place next year, the 2,400 fossil fuel lobbyists here should have no place at the next conference,” he said.