Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not attend the COP27 climate conference in Egypt next month, Downing Street says.
No 10 denied this showed a lack of commitment to tackling climate change, but Labour accused the PM of a “massive failure of climate leadership”.
Mr Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss had been due to attend the conference.
But No 10 said the new PM would not be going “due to other pressing domestic commitments including preparations for the autumn Budget”.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said the UK would be represented by outgoing COP president Alok Sharma, and other ministers.
“We remain committed to net zero and to leading international and domestic action to tackle climate change. The UK is forging ahead of many other countries on net zero,” she added.
“We will obviously continue to work closely with Egypt as the hosts of COP27 and to make sure that all countries are making progress on the historic commitments they made at the Glasgow climate pact.”
What is COP27?
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COP27 will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh from 6 to 18 November – finishing the day after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to set out the UK’s tax and spending plans.
The annual UN climate summits are designed to help governments agree steps to limit global temperature rises. The UK hosted last year’s summit, COP26, in Glasgow in 2021.
The news that Mr Sunak will not be attending comes as a UN report warns there is “no credible pathway” to keep the rise in global temperatures below a key threshold of 1.5C.
Scientists believe that going beyond 1.5C would see dangerous impacts for people all over the world.
The UN’s emissions gap study also said that governments’ carbon-cutting plans since last year’s climate summit had been “woefully inadequate”.
‘Total failure’
On Wednesday, United Nations secretary general António Guterres told the BBC countries must reprioritise climate change or face catastrophe.
The summit in Egypt is expected to focus on three main areas – reducing emissions, helping countries prepare for and deal with climate change, and securing technical support for developing countries for these activities.
Labour’s shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC: “You’ve got world leaders from around the globe gathering together to talk about how we can tackle the biggest long-term threat we face […] and our prime minister can’t be bothered to turn up.
“I think that is a total failure of generations today and generations in the future.”
