U.S. President Joe Biden holds an event on American retirement economics in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, United States, on October 31, 2023. Portal/Leah Millis acquires license rights
WASHINGTON/ABU DHABI, Oct 31 (Portal) – U.S. President Joe Biden is unlikely to attend a meeting of leaders in November, according to two U.S. officials and another person briefed on the event’s planning World heads of government will take part on the issue of climate change.
The 28th meeting of the United Nations Conference of the Parties on climate, known as COP28, will take place from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer.
Biden’s schedule is not set, could still change and will not be official until announced, people warned. Two said no final decision had been made.
The White House said it had no current information on Biden’s travel plans.
“President Biden has led and implemented the most ambitious climate agenda in history, both at home and abroad. While we have no travel updates to share at this time, the government looks forward to a robust and productive COP28,” a spokesperson said.
Biden’s advisers are balancing demands for the president’s term amid a Middle East war and a showdown with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives over federal spending, as well as ahead of a presidential campaign season that Biden’s aides say is expected to heat up in January.
Dozens of countries want to push for the world’s first agreement to phase out carbon-emitting coal, oil and gas at the meeting in Dubai.
Such a deal would be a special highlight for the Democratic president ahead of the 2024 presidential election, in which many liberal and younger voters rank climate change as a top issue.
The event would also give Biden a chance to engage face-to-face with Arab and other world leaders to discuss the war in Gaza after a planned summit this month in Jordan was canceled. Last year, participants included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Biden has attended both COP summits since his inauguration in 2021. Former President Donald Trump, a Republican seeking a second term in 2024, skipped the events after announcing the country would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the global pact to combat climate change. Biden brought the US back to the pact.
Biden’s participation in last year’s COP27 event in Egypt was announced just two weeks before the event. There he referred to the climate provisions of the then recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.
Biden skipped a summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in September and sent Vice President Kamala Harris in his place.
Asked whether she would attend COP28, a spokesman for Harris said: “We have no travel to announce.”
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jeff Mason and Alexander Cornwell; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates
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