A US official has announced that US President, Joe Biden will not be attending the gathering of world leaders focused on climate change in Dubai this week.
Recall that a Reuters last month had suggested that Biden was unlikely to be at the United Nations “Conference of the Parties” on climate, known as Cop28, which begins on Thursday, as he balances the demands of a Middle East war and a presidential campaign expected to heat up in January.
The president’s schedule for Thursday, which was released by the White Hous,e shows him hosting a bilateral meeting with President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço of the Republic of Angola and attending the National Tree Lighting.
Several countries will be represented at the COP28 this month, where they will push for the world’s first deal to phase out CO2-emitting coal, oil and gas at the Dubai meeting.
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Biden has attended both of the Cop summits since his 2021 inauguration.
The long talks are expected to begin this Thursday in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a major oil and gas-producing country. Several world leaders, senior ministers and officials from 198 countries will be in attendance, along with an estimated 70,000 delegates, making it the biggest annual Cop yet held under the 1992 UN framework convention on climate change.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is also expected to attend while King Charles will give the opening speech, along with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the UAE president, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. It is also expected that the pope will be in attendance as well as the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Also, an invitation has been extended to Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
