Mukhtar Babayev

Mukhtar Bahadur oghlu Babayev (Muxtar Bahadur oğlu Babayev, 16 October 1967) is an Azerbaijani politician who is Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Republic. He has worked in various roles for the Azerbaijan state-owned oil company SOCAR since the 1990s.

The Azerbaijan government appointed Babayev as president of COP29, the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Biography
Mukhtar Babayev was born on October 16, 1967, in Baku. He graduated from high school in Baku in 1984 and served in the military between 1986 and 1988. In 1991, he graduated from Moscow State University, majoring in political science. In 1994, he received bachelor degree in Foreign Economic Relations of Azerbaijan State University of Economics. In 2000, he graduated from the specialty in World Economy of All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade.

Political career
In 1991–1992 he worked at Azerbaijan's State Committee for Economy and Planning He worked at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations in 1992-1993.

He worked SOCAR, the Azerbaijan state-owned petroleum company from 1994 to 2018. From 2007 to 2010, he was the company's Vice President for Ecology.

He is a member of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. In the 2010 and 2015 Azerbaijan parliamentary elections, Babayev was elected a deputy of National Assembly of Azerbaijan Republic. While in the assembly, he was on the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology committee.

In 2013, Babayev became a member of the supervisory board of Sumgayit FK and left in 2020.

He was appointed to the position of Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Republic on April 23, 2018. He is the head of the Azerbaijan-Japan interparliamentary relations working group, a member of the working groups on relations with the parliaments of Belarus, Chile, China, Afghanistan, Sweden, Lithuania, Libya, the Netherlands, Uzbekistan, Peru, and Russia.

On January 7, 2024, Azerbaijan's ruler Ilham Aliyev appointed Babayev to be president of COP29, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Awards

 * Taraggi Medal — 19 September 2012
 * Shohrat Order — 7 November 2017
 * Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star — 29 April 2022