New UK Prime Minister Sunak will not attend COP27 climate summit

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not attend the COP27 climate summit which begins in Egypt next month, his office said on Thursday. tax return.

Sunak became prime minister on Monday and postponed a fall budget statement until November 17 as he seeks to tackle a cost-of-living crisis and restore international economic credibility damaged by his predecessor’s short tenure. Liz Truss.

Truss was due to attend, but on Thursday Sunak’s Downing Street office said the new prime minister was not planning to go to the summit.

“The Prime Minister is not expected to attend the summit in Egypt due to other urgent national commitments, including preparations for the Autumn Declaration,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

The spokesman said Britain remained “absolutely committed to supporting COP27 and leading international action to tackle climate change and protect nature”, having hosted the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year.

Just under a year ago, Britain trumpeted the Glasgow Climate Pact agreement, finalized in dramatic circumstances after months of arduous negotiations that lasted until the last few minutes. The agreement was intended to ensure that the world still had a chance to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

“The UK will be fully represented by other senior ministers, as well as COP President Alok Sharma,” the spokesperson said.

“They will work to ensure countries continue to make progress on the groundbreaking commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow.”

The opposition Labor Party criticized Sunak’s decision not to attend the summit, with its climate change policy spokesman calling it a “big mistake”.

“It’s not leadership. It’s abdicating leadership not to go for it,” Ed Milliband told Sky News, adding that it was right “to go fast and hard on clean energy” to Britain’s climate commitments, energy security and jobs.

Sunak told world leaders he spoke to during his first week in charge that he intended to travel to the G20 leaders’ summit in Indonesia, which takes place a few days before the declaration of fall.

The autumn statement will detail spending cuts and medium-term budget forecasts as the Department of Finance seeks to close a budget shortfall of up to 40 billion pounds ($46.28 billion).

($1 = 0.8644 pounds)

Reporting by Alistair Smout and Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by William James and Mark Porter

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