The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, confirmed Thursday that he will not attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), to be held between November 6 and 18 in Egypt.
After hearing the news, and in the face of the criticism that this has raised, Downing Street has hastened to clarify that it is not a lack of commitment on the part of the ‘premier’, but that Sunak has «other urgent domestic commitments».
A government spokesman has confirmed that the British representation will be provided by Alok Sharma, who served as president of the previous edition of the Climate Summit, held in the Scottish city of Glasgow, according to the BBC.
«Obviously, we will continue to work closely with Egypt as hosts of COP27 and to ensure that all countries are making progress on the historic commitments they made in the Glasgow climate pact,» Downing Street added.
This year’s Climate Summit will be held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, on the east coast of the Sinai Peninsula, and will culminate just one day after the date set for the British Executive to present its budget, a key issue in the country’s current political instability.
In fact, the Labor Party has strongly criticized Sunak for absenting himself from the meeting at a time when the United Nations has encouraged to take climate change seriously in order to avoid a global catastrophe.
«You have world leaders from around the world coming together to talk about how we can tackle the biggest long-term threat we face (…) and our prime minister doesn’t even bother to turn up,» criticized the shadow minister for climate change, Ed Miliband.
From the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey also accused Sunak of breaking with Britain’s «proud tradition» of leading global efforts to combat climate change by his absence at the Climate Summit.
