UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak has been criticised for “a failure of leadership”, after he said that he would not attend the COP27 climate summit in Egypt next month.
While opposition parties and environmental groups say that the decision shows that the government was not taking the climate crisis seriously enough, Downing Street said that the PM had “other pressing domestic commitments including preparations for the autumn Budget”.
Recall that Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss had been due to attend the conference.
However, a Downing Street spokeswoman was quoted as saying that the UK would be represented by outgoing COP president Alok Sharma, and other ministers.
“We remain committed to net zero and to leading international and domestic action to tackle climate change,” the spokeswoman was quoted as saying. “The UK is forging ahead of many other countries on net zero,”.
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She further stated that the UK will continue to work closely with Egypt as the host of COP27 and to make sure that all countries are making progress on the historic commitments they made at the Glasgow climate pact.
COP27 is expected to take place in Sharm el-Sheikh from 6 to 18 November. The annual UN climate summits are designed to among other things, help governments agree on steps to limit global temperature rises.
The summit is expected to focus on three main areas – reducing emissions, helping countries prepare for and deal with climate change, and securing technical support for developing countries for these activities.
For Labour, the decision by Mr Sunak not to attend was “a massive failure of climate leadership”. Shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said,”You’ve got world leaders from around the globe gathering together to talk about how we can tackle the biggest long-term threat we face […] and our prime minister can’t be bothered to turn up.
The Liberal Democrats also criticised the decision, with leader Sir Ed Davey saying that it “flies in the face of the UK’s proud tradition of leading the world in our response to climate change”.
Similarly, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said that the new PM’s decision not to attend COP27 makes a mockery of any government claims on continued climate leadership – and what a shameful way to end the UK’s COP presidency.
Story was adapted from BBC.
