The White House said Sunday that President Joe Biden will not attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference this year as he oversees the US response to the ongoing crises in Gaza and Ukraine.
The UN summit, known as the Conference of the Parties or COP, begins this week in Dubai. World leaders and ambassadors are expected to visit the emirate as scientists continue to warn that the planet is entering “climate uncertainty territory” due to the continued release of greenhouse gas emissions and a slower-than-needed response to wean the world off fossil fuels. have done
The New York Times quoted a White House official as saying that Biden will not travel to Dubai despite attending two previous COPs in Scotland and Egypt. White House Special Envoy for Climate Change John Kerry will be in Dubai to represent the United States.
“From day one, President Biden has led and delivered the most ambitious climate agenda in history at home and abroad,” the White House said in a statement obtained by Axios. “The Administration looks forward to a strong and productive COP28, where Special Envoy John Kerry, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi and Senior Advisor John Podesta, among others, will continue to build on the Administration’s historic actions to address the climate crisis.”
President Joe Biden comments on his administration’s actions to address the climate crisis in the South Court Auditorium of the White House on November 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Other prominent figures, including King Charles and Pope Francis, are expected to be in Dubai in the next two weeks.
Recent reports have made scientists’ calls to curb the use of fossil fuels worldwide even more urgent. The US released its fifth National Climate Assessment earlier this month, which found that the country is already facing a number of climate-related ills, including dramatically increased heat, weather-driven disasters and flooding across the US. Increase, including fire. And the risk of fire increases. dry
At the time, Biden called climate change “the ultimate threat to humanity”.
The report comes before scientists warned that 2023 is likely to be the hottest year since record-keeping began.
Still, the UN climate conference is often promoted as an annual effort to address those concerns, like the 2015 Paris climate accord. The US and China – the planet’s two biggest carbon emitters – also recently agreed to a new partnership that would dramatically expand renewable energy in hopes of phasing out fossil fuels.
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