Downing Street has announced that prime minister Rishi Sunak will not travel to the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in November “due to other pressing domestic commitments.”
Number 10 said that these commitments included preparing for the Autumn Budget.
Hosted in Sharm el-Sheikh, COP27 is scheduled to run from November 6 to November 18, which overlaps with the UK’s government’s statement on its fiscal plan.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to deliver his statement on the nation’s finances on November 17.
A spokesperson for Number 10 has reassured that the PM remains “committed to net zero and to leading international and domestic action to tackle climate change” despite his decision not to attend COP27.
“The UK is forging ahead of many other countries on net zero,” the spokesperson said.
“We will obviously continue to work closely with Egypt as the hosts of COP27 and to make sure that all countries are making progress on the historic commitments they made at the Glasgow climate pact (made at COP26).”
Over 200 governments across the world have been invited to this year’s summit. Other senior ministers including COP26 president Alok Sharma will form part of the UK delegation.
In his capacity as chancellor, Sunak did attend last year’s COP summit in Glasgow, alongside then prime minister Boris Johnson.
Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss had been planning to make the trip to Egypt while still in post as PM. She had also instructed former energy minister Chris Skidmore to commission a review into the delivery of a net-zero UK, which remains ongoing.
However, a new report from the UN has suggested that there is no “credible” means of keeping global temperature increases below 1.5C as per the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The report also referred to global progress on climate action as “inadequate”.
