US President Joe Biden will attend next month’s COP27 United Nations climate summit in Egypt, the White House said Friday, vowing he would “highlight the need for the world to act.”
The COP27 conference will once more seek to boost global efforts to slow the climate crisis that is intensifying natural disasters, from wildfires to severe storms.
Biden will “advance the global climate fight and help the most vulnerable build resilience to climate impacts, and he will highlight the need for the world to act in this decisive decade,” the White House said in a statement.
Egypt is to host the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Biden will be at the summit on November 11, before heading to Cambodia for the annual US-ASEAN summit and then on to Indonesia for a G20 summit.
“He will work with G20 partners to address key challenges such as climate change, the global impact of (President Vladimir) Putin’s war on Ukraine, including on energy and food security and affordability, and a range of other priorities,” the White House said.
US officials have said Biden has no intention to meet Putin at the G20 summit, even if Putin attends.
Biden has also no plans to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G20, with US-Saudi relations under new strain over Riyadh’s recent support for oil production cuts.
COP26 last year ended with a pledge to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels — a goal the world is set to miss on current emission trends.