Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Energy and British multinational oil and gas company bp signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in assessing the potential and conditions required for large-scale decarbonised and integrated energy and mobility systems, including renewable energy projects in the regions and cities of Azerbaijan.
The Memorandum has been signed in the context of Azerbaijan’s economic diversification, creation of a competitive energy market, clean environment and green growth agenda and bp’s announcement in 2020 of its net-zero ambition.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 35 per cent by 2030, creating a clean environment and increasing the share of green energy in production and consumption have been identified by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr Ilham Aliyev as the country’s socio-economic development priorities,” said the Minister of Energy, Parviz Shahbazov. “The development of the renewable energy sector in the country, especially the creation of green energy zones, is strongly supported. Foreign and local investors are invited to the process of providing Azerbaijan with long-term, sustainable, affordable and environmentally friendly energy sources.”
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to collaborate with the Ministry of Energy towards achieving bp’s and Azerbaijan’s respective sustainability goals,” added BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gary Jones. “The MoU we signed today provides a new platform for cooperation leading potentially to new partnership opportunities for bp and Azerbaijan. bp has been Azerbaijan’s energy partner for nearly three decades and now when bp is aiming to significantly scale-up its low-carbon energy business and transform its mobility and convenience offers, we believe there is great potential to build on our successful partnership with Azerbaijan.”
He recalled that the company has recently partnered with the cities of Houston and Aberdeen and by signing this MoU it would like to explore similar partnership opportunities with regions and cities in Azerbaijan to bring integrated energy and mobility solutions including clean energy aimed at driving down emissions.
According to the Memorandum, a Steering Committee and a Working Group will be established and a Master Plan will be developed for decarbonisation of relevant regions or cities of Azerbaijan. The Master Plan will cover the development of trends for clean energy projects, low-carbon transport, green buildings, waste management, clean industry, natural climate solutions, integrated partnerships, as well as the development of integrated and decarbonised energy and mobility systems.
Since January 2020, a number of measures have been taken to assess the potential for electricity generation from renewable sources, in order to take the right steps to exploit such potential. Moreover, the seven working groups, established at the end of 2019 by the government continue to work for implementing pilot projects on the use of renewable energy sources.
Photo: Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Energy
