London:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday defended his decision not to attend the COP27 summit on climate change next month, saying he should focus on “urgent” economic problems.
In an interview with Sky News a day after Downing Street announced he was skipping the summit, the prime minister emphasized that he was “very personally committed” to environmental issues.
“I just think it’s right at this point that I also focus on the pressing domestic challenges we have with the economy, and I think people watching would reasonably expect me to do the same,” Sunak said.
The COP27 UN Climate Change Conference will take place in Egypt on November 7-8, two weeks after Sunak became Prime Minister.
Opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer attacked the Tory leader’s decision to “avoid the event”, while Green Party leader Caroline Lucas said Sunak’s absence was an “embarrassing way to end Britain’s COP presidency” .
The UK hosted the previous summit, COP26, in Glasgow in Scotland in 2021, with British politician Alok Sharma as president.
Sunak said the UK should be “very proud of how we are doing” as “one of the fastest decarbonisation countries”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)