British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will attend the UN climate summit in Egypt after all. He announced that on Wednesday. Sunak had no intention of going to Sharm-el-Sheikh at first but is now adjusting.
“There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change. There is no energy security without investment in renewable energy,” the new-fangled British Prime Minister tweeted on Wednesday. “That’s why I will attend the COP27 next week”.
Earlier, Downing Street said Sunak would not go to Egypt because he wanted to focus on domestic challenges. But, unfortunately, a head of government often misses a climate summit. Still, in this edition, Britain hands over the presidency of the talks to Egypt after the previous climate conference in 2020 took place in Glasgow, Scotland.
In addition, the British Prime Minister came under increasing pressure to attend the climate summit after all, especially since ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his attendance on Tuesday.
Johnson made climate action one of the spearheads of his policy, but his replacement Liz Truss, who took office in September, seemed to attach much less importance to it. Truss’ services even pressured King Charles III not to descend to Egypt.
However, the British monarch is known to be very concerned about climate and the environment. That advice to the king remains in effect, Downing Street said on Wednesday.
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