Rishi Sunak to skip crucial Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, No 10 reveals

Rishi Sunak will not attend next month’s crucial Cop27 summit in Egypt, even as hopes of a deal to avoid runaway climate change begin to fade.Liz Truss was set to go to at least one day of the fortnight-long event – but the new prime minister’s spokesperson said he had ‘other pressing domestic commitments’She pointed to the de-facto budget now delayed until 17 November, when the government will unveil huge spending cuts and tax hikes to ease the economic crisis.Mr Sunak’s decision not to go comes after his predecessor banned King Charles from attending – a decision that is not believed to be being rethought.Cop27 is already teetering on the brink of failure, with the UN warning current pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions will lead to global heating of 2.5C.A rise of no more than 1.5C is needed to avoid catastrophic climate change, experts warn – but last year’s Cop 26 summit in Glasgow failed to achieve the necessary reductions.