Cop28: US President Joe Biden to skip climate summit in Dubai

United States President Joe Biden isn’t planning to attend the Cop28 climate summit later this week in Dubai, according to people familiar with the situation.

Although no official announcement has been made, the US delegation preparing for the annual climate talks has been told not to expect the president at this year’s event, the people said, asking to not be named because the information is private.

The global leaders’ summit that opens the event takes place on Friday and Saturday this week. Biden’s list of official engagements has him in the US until Thursday, when he’s expected to meet the Angolan president in Washington.

Although we don’t have any travel updates to share for the President at this time, the Administration looks forward to a robust and productive Cop28

Angelo Fernandez Hernandez, White House spokesman

Presidential travel schedules can be changed at the last minute.

“Although we don’t have any travel updates to share for the President at this time, the Administration looks forward to a robust and productive Cop28,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said in a statement.

The New York Times first reported Biden’s plans not to travel, citing an unidentified White House official.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the UK’s Rishi Sunak and France’s President Emmanuel Macron are among world leaders expected in Dubai. China’s Xi Jinping won’t be there, meaning that as things stand, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases will not be represented by their heads of state.

Biden, who took the US back into the Paris agreement on cutting emissions, attended the last two summits, making a very quick stop in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last year and travelling to Glasgow, Scotland in 2021.

John Kerry, the president’s special envoy on climate change, will be in Dubai for the entire summit, which runs from November 30 to December 12.

The agenda for Cop28 includes a new target for the expansion of renewable energies. A financial pot for damages and losses is also on the agenda, and an official assessment of whether the world is on track to contain the crisis.

Additional reporting by dpa