Who is going to Cop27 explained as Rishi Sunak snubs major climate summit

Cop27, the annual United Nations’ global climate summit, will take place in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt over 10 days in November. Following last year’s Cop26 gathering in Glasgow, the conference from the 6th to the 18th will again see world leaders and their teams of negotiators come together to thrash out deals to safeguard the future of the planet.Cop27 is open to all parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the landmark treaty signed by many nations at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That treaty was aimed at reining in ‘dangerous human interference with the climate system’ – and later led to the emissions-cutting deals Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement.Observer organisations like environmental NGOs, think-tanks and faith-based groups, as well as members of the media and the general public, are also allowed to attend.More than 200 governments have been invited to take part although not all world leaders have confirmed their attendance.Despite Cop27 coinciding with the US Midterms elections, President Joe Biden will reportedly join climate envoy John Kerry in Egypt. The White House has been reluctant to discuss travel plans in detail, and whether the US leader will sit down with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping is not yet known.Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a pariah due to the war in Ukraine, is not expected to show up although the Kremlin could still send delegates to the summit.As host nation, Egypt has called on countries otherwise hostile to one another to put their differences aside and ‘show leadership’ for the greater good of the planet.Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin would be two of the biggest names to attend Also missing out will be new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The decision to prioritise Britain’s Autumn Budget over the summit was blasted as a ‘massive failure of leadership’ by Labour’s shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband.’Britain showing up to work with world leaders is an opportunity to grasp. Not an event to shun,’ said Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with Green MP Caroline Lucas and Greenpeace UK also expressing their condemnation.A Tory spokesman insisted the UK remains committed to net-zero and leading the fight against climate change. However the PM’s new environment secretary, Therese Coffey, subsequently made matters worse by attempting to justify the decision by saying it was ‘standard practice’ and downplaying Cop27 as ‘just a gathering of people in Egypt’.Alok Sharma MP, who was UK president of Cop26, will attend despite losing his Cabinet post in Mr Sunak’s first reshuffle. It is also possible that Ms Coffey, foreign secretary James Cleverly or business secretary Grant Shapps may attend.Alok Sharma, the president of Cop26, when it was hosted by the UK in Glasgow Mr Sharma appeared before a number of parliamentary committees on Mr Sunak’s first day in office and said the government should ‘explain and demonstrate’ how pivoting back towards fossil fuel exploitation is consistent with the fight against climate change.Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Nasr has implored Britain to play a significant role at Cop27. ‘We know that there are challenges, economic challenges that are there, facing the UK and other countries, but we hope that those challenges does not lead to backsliding on the pledges,’ he told Sky News.Egypt’s ambassador also said that he hopes King Charles III will rethink skipping the summit, a decision held over from Liz Truss’s brief tenure as PM as part of a bid to keep the new monarch at one remove from ‘political’ concerns.The invitation is ‘still there, it’s an open invitation’, Mr Nasr said. ‘He has been a very strong advocate for climate action. He has been a role model for… putting not only his political weight behind the climate change discussion, but also that he has been influencing and giving the right image for how royalty can push for the climate agenda.King Charles III is not expected to attend despite his long-held concerns about climate ‘So we hope that he will be there, and we still hope that he can make it and come and come to Sharm El-Sheikh.’Ms Coffey has since said that it is ‘up to’ His Majesty ‘to decide how he chooses where to put his priorities in his reign as king’.Earlier this month, Wael Aboulmagd, a special representative for the Cop27 presidency, told Reuters that around 90 nations had confirmed they would be in attendance, although he did not name specific countries.’We’ve received a large number of confirmations from around the world, I think the last count was about 90 heads of state but the numbers keep coming in,’ he said.’What we’ve decided is that our heads of state section will not be a traditional plenary-only type of affair, but rather there will be six roundtables… for heads of state to actually engage in a discussion on the issue at hand.’The guest list continues to grow as we get closer to the opening date, with Hollywood superstar and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio a possible attendee once again, the actor having clearly enjoyed his time in Scotland a year ago.