Busy with the Gaza war?
Biden is not attending the UN climate conference
November 27, 2023, 7:21 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
He will be in Glasgow in 2021, in Egypt in 2022, but he will be missing in Dubai: the US President will not be traveling to this year’s World Climate Conference. It is still unclear why. However, there are indications that this could be related to the Gaza war.
US President Joe Biden will not attend a United Nations leaders meeting on climate change (COP28) in Dubai this week. This was announced by a spokesman for the US government. The presidential schedule for Thursday released by the White House instead shows that Biden will have a bilateral meeting with the President of the Republic of Angola, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, and then turn on the lights of the Christmas tree next to the White House in a traditional ceremony.
As the New York Times writes, the White House gave no reason for Biden’s absence. However, according to the newspaper, senior officials indicated that the Gaza war was very much on Biden’s mind as he pushed for a pause in fighting and the release of hostages held by the terrorist organization Hamas. The US climate representative John Kerry is said to be on site in Dubai.
Representatives from around 200 countries will meet in Dubai for two weeks starting Thursday for the UN World Climate Conference – also known as COP28. It is the 28th meeting of its kind. Biden took part in the last two summits in Glasgow and Egypt. He called climate change the “ultimate threat to humanity.”
An ambitious new target for the expansion of renewable energies is to be agreed in Dubai. It is also about a financial pot for damage and losses, and for the first time since the climate conference in Paris in 2015, an official inventory of whether the world is on track to contain the crisis is on the agenda.
Warning against further fossil fuel production
Just a few weeks ago, the UN Environment Program warned that plans by some industrialized countries to continue producing fossil fuels could significantly exceed the 1.5 degree global warming target. The production plans of the top 20 producing countries, including the United States, China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, do not foresee a decline in fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal by 2030, according to a recent annual report from the Environmental Program.
According to the report, while other countries want to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by mid-century, the plans of these countries’ governments will result in the production of fossil fuels by 2030 that is 110 percent higher than this The 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Protection Agreement would be compatible. According to the report, even the target of a maximum global warming of two degrees would be missed due to the targeted production volumes.