LATEST: Rishi Sunak will attend Cop27 after U-turn
Pressure continues to mount on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to change his mind and appear at the Cop27 conference in Egypt, after Boris Johnson confirmed he will attend the climate summit.
With the UN summit opening on Sunday, former prime minister Mr Johnson on Tuesday saying he was “happy to go” to Sharm El Sheikh.
Mr Sunak appears to be leaving his own decision to the last minute, having initially ruled out attending before indicating that he could change his mind, after widespread criticism.
His climate adviser, Alok Sharma, had said he was “disappointed” that Mr Sunak was not planning to attend.
But the decision of his arch-rival and former Downing Street neighbour to attend will make it even harder for Mr Sunak to resist going.
Sharm El Sheikh's preparations for Cop27 - in pictures
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A billboard in Sharm El Sheikh ahead of the climate summit. All photos: Mahmoud Nasr / The National -
Electric car chargers have been installed in petrol stations in Sharm El Sheikh to help the city go green. -
Egypt's first electric bus charging station has started working ahead of Cop27. -
Buses charge up at the station. -
Solar panel power stations will provide energy for the city during Cop27. -
Panel power in the sunlit desert.
Asked if he thought Mr Sunak should go, Mr Johnson told Sky News that the new prime minister has a “massive amount to do” with the government’s domestic agenda.
“I happen to have a particular interest,” he said.
Mr Johnson said it had become “unfashionable” to talk about the Cop26, which he hosted in Glasgow last year.
“I want to talk a little bit about how I see things and how we see things in the UK,” he said.
Access limited for Cop27 climate activists — in pictures
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The Cop27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh is the first annual UN climate conference to be held after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Campaigners see it as a crucial venue for raising the alarm over climate change and putting pressure on governments to act. All photos: Reuters -
But they say voicing their concerns through rallies and protests as they have done in past host countries or cities will be more challenging in Egypt, where public demonstrations are effectively banned and activists have struggled to operate legally. -
Limits on accreditation and attendance badges for activists, especially from poorer nations, have also been a point of contention at previous UN climate summits. -
Egypt, which has only one NGO permanently accredited to attend the annual summits, says the inclusion of civil society is a priority, and it has helped to add more NGOs, including 35 Egyptian groups, through a single-year admission valid only for Cop27. -
That was a positive step but the process was not publicly announced and did not give some groups a fair chance to apply, said Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and one of Egypt's best known campaigners. -
A representative of Egypt's Cop presidency said there had been a 'fully transparent' selection process approved by the UN after consultation with regional organisations and national negotiating teams. Egyptian groups were recommended based on their environment and climate change expertise, the representative said. A UN climate change spokesman said there had been about 10,000 registrations from close to 2,000 admitted observer organisations for Cop27, which was similar to Cop26 in Glasgow. -
Another concern among activists is the difficulty ordinary citizens may face in visiting Sharm El Sheikh. The city, situated at the southern tip of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, is bordered by the sea on one side and a concrete and wire barrier in the desert on the other. -
Some of those hoping to travel from outside Egypt have been put off by hotel prices that ran into hundreds of dollars a night earlier in the year. After lobbying from civil society, the government negotiated a $120 price cap for two-star hotels and announced cheaper accommodation in recent weeks. That included rooms for 400 young people at about $30 to $40 a night, and was designed to help African groups overcome long-standing obstacles to having access to Cop summits, said Omnia El-Omrani, Cop27's youth envoy.
Initially Downing Street said Mr Sunak would not be attending because he must focus on the “depressing domestic challenges”, as he works on the autumn budget.
But on Monday he changed tack, with No 10 saying that the decision was now “under review” as “substantial progress” was being made on his economic plans.
Mr Sunak's spokesman could not confirm on Tuesday afternoon whether he would be attending, saying talks were continuing with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
