President Joe Biden will not attend a United Nations climate summit for the first time in three years.
The Democrat promised to advance progressive environmental policies while campaigning in 2020 and has repeatedly advocated for the use of alternative energy sources.
An estimated 70,000 people are expected to attend the “Conference of the Parties” – known as the COP28 – in Dubai on Nov. 30. Biden has attended the summit for the last two years, but a newly released schedule indicates the president will not travel to the Middle East.
Instead, Biden is set to travel to Colorado to promote wind energy, to meet with President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço of Angola, and to take part in the lighting of the National Christmas Tree.
Additionally, the president will attend a reception for Kennedy Center honorees.
His schedule was first reported by The New York Times, which noted that a senior aide implied Biden was preoccupied with other matters, including the Israel-Hamas war.
“President Biden has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, both at home and abroad. Although we don’t have any travel updates to share at this time, the Administration looks forward to a robust and productive COP28,” a Biden Administration spokesperson told Reuters.
“He secured the largest climate investment ever, putting the U.S. on a path to cut climate pollution in half by 2030, protected more than 21 million acres of public lands and waters, and he continues to rally world leaders to raise their collective climate ambition," the White House said in a statement emailed to Axios on Nov. 26.
Some sources have suggested that Biden’s travel plans are not definite, but he is widely expected to miss both the opening days of the summit and the closing days around Dec. 12.
“Until Biden, it was not customary for the US president to attend each COP summit. In 2021, Biden traveled to Glasgow to vow that the US would again take a global leadership role on climate after his predecessor [President Donald Trump] pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord,” reports Le Monde. “Trump, who is seeking the White House again, is a climate skeptic who says that action is too costly to the US. Biden again made a brief trip last year to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who occasionally represents the Biden administration on behalf of the president, is also not scheduled to attend COP28.
Other international leaders from 198 countries will be present at the event, including Pope Francis, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres. An invitation has been extended to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
King Charles will give the opening address.
According to The Guardian, several countries will advocate for a plan to phase out the international use of CO2-emitting coal, oil and gas.
