BoJo in city to press climate action

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to New York City on Sunday with senior Cabinet officials on a mission to urge world leaders attending the UN General Assembly to take urgent action on climate change ahead of this fall’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland.

Johnson is set to co-host a meeting on climate change with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday. The two will discuss the need to help developing countries mitigate the impact of climate change.

Britain is hosting the COP26 summit from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow. The conference is billed as a pivotal moment to persuade governments, industry and investors to make binding commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and to make progress on reducing global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The British government says 100 world leaders have confirmed they will attend the conference. But Alok Sharma, the British official serving as the conference’s president, was unable to confirm Sunday if Chinese President Xi Jinping has committed to attending the talks, or whether China would definitely be sending a delegation.

He told Sky News that Beijing, as the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, would have to be a key part of any climate pact.

Johnson, Sharma and newly appointed British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will be in the US for four days.

After the General Assembly, Johnson and Truss will visit the White House for talks.

It will be Johnson’s first trip to the White House since President Biden took office in January.