Oct. 27 () –
The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed this Thursday that he will not attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which will be held between November 6 and 18 in Egypt.
After hearing the news, and given the criticism it has provoked, 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 internal commitments”.
A government spokesman has confirmed that the British representation will be at the expense of 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,” they added from Downing Street.
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 end just one day after the date set for the British Executive to present its budgets, a matter key in the current political instability in the country.
In fact, from the Labor Party, Sunak has been harshly charged for absenting himself from the meeting at a time when the United Nations has encouraged taking climate change seriously to avoid a global catastrophe.
“You have world leaders from all over the world meeting to talk about how we can address the biggest long-term threat we face (…) and our prime minister doesn’t even bother to show up,” the shadow minister for change has criticized. climate, Ed Miliband.
From the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey has also accused Sunak of, by his absence from the Climate Summit, breaking with the British “proud tradition” of leading global efforts to combat climate change.
