I think it should be obvious that Elnur Soltanov should be dismissed immediately, and that this is totally unacceptable.

However… conflicts of interest are an interesting problem. There’s some similar discussion regarding Russia on the UN Security Council: “how we can let the source of our insecurity discuss/control our security?”. The issue is that an organization that does not, well, deal with the problem, cannot deal with the problem.

Oil executives probably should be involved in these conferences as much as possible. To that extent conflicts are inevitable. A room full of climate activists and politicians with no stake in major industries sounds strictly less effective than one which includes them.

Life is tricky, diplomacy trickier. I’m not sure there’s a good answer here, except publicly shaming and dismissing this executive and then continuing to invite powerful oil industrialists to the table.

Talk to everyone, especially your enemies.