Biden To Skip Annual United Nations Climate Summit

The New York Times reports:

President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai, skipping an event expected to be attended by King Charles III, Pope Francis and leaders from nearly 200 countries, a White House official said Sunday. Senior White House aides suggested that the war between Israel and Hamas had consumed the president in recent weeks and days, as he pressed for a pause in fighting and release of hostages held by Hamas.

“They’ve got the war in the Middle East and a war in Ukraine, a bunch of things going on,” John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s special envoy for climate change, said last week. Mr. Kerry and his team will be in Dubai. For the past two years, Mr. Biden has attended the annual U.N. climate conference, the location of which changes. In 2021, Mr. Biden traveled to Glasgow for the talks, where he apologized for the United States briefly pulling out of a global climate pact under Trump, who mocked climate science.

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Breaking News: President Biden will skip the U.N. climate summit known as COP28 in Dubai, a U.S. official said. https://t.co/iDWhmfaZNl

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 27, 2023