COP cancellation

Rishi Sunak faced condemnation after his spokesman announced Thursday he will not attend next month’s COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt due to “pressing domestic commitments.”

Britain hosted the last such summit, COP26, when it stressed the importance of global leaders convening to discuss climate change amid growing criticism of their failure to meet vital carbon reduction targets.

Sunak’s decision came on the same day the United Nations warned that countries’ climate pledges leave the world on track to heat by a potentially calamitous 2.6 degrees Celsius (36.7 degrees Fahrenheit) this century.

It also follows his moves to stop allowing the government’s COP26 minister Alok Sharma and climate minister Graham Stuart attending cabinet, as they had done under his predecessors.