President Biden will skip the United Nations climate summit that kicks off Thursday in Dubai amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, a report said Sunday.
Biden, who just weeks ago called climate change “the ultimate threat to humanity,” will not be among the leaders of nearly 200 countries who will attend the two-week event, known as COP28, a White House official told the New York Times.
The official who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the president’s plans did not provide a reason for his absence, but senior aides told the publication that Biden has been preoccupied with the deadly conflict across Gaza and Israel.
“They’ve got the war in the Middle East and a war in Ukraine, a bunch of things going on,” John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate change, said last week.
Kerry and his team will attend the summit in Biden’s place. Leaders including even King Charles III and Pope Francis are expected to be in attendance.
The Dubai summit will be the first UN climate conference — an annual event held in a different location each year — that Biden will miss since he became president.
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In 2021, he flew to Glasgow, that year’s host country, for the worldwide event and apologized to other countries for the US’s brief departure from participating — when his predecessor, Donald Trump, pulled out and mocked climate change, according to the outlet.
Last year, Biden made a quick, three-hour stopover in Egypt to attend the conference.
Most past US presidents have not attended the summit every year, but Biden’s absence could likely draw backlash from climate activists.
Officials at the summit will examine and discuss where they stand on limiting greenhouse emissions and global warming temperatures.
The world must reduce emissions 43% below 2019 levels by 2030 to avoid catastrophic effects caused by climate change, scientists say, the Times reported. The current plans, however, would only reduce emissions by 7%.
