Joe Biden will not attend the UN climate summit in Dubai

The American president Joe Biden will not attend the annual climate summit of the UN taking place in Dubai this week, an event that will attract heads of state and diplomats from some 200 nations and the Vatican. Biden has attended the event on two previous occasions.

The White House announced that it will send a delegation that will include special climate envoy John Kerry, special advisor Ali Zaidi and clean energy advisor John Podesta.

“While we have no updates to offer on presidential travel, the government is eager to attend a COP28 robust and productivedeclared White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández, adding that the government will continue to make efforts “to address the climate crisis.”

Biden had also promised to visit Africa before the end of the year, but that trip does not seem to come true either. The White House has offered no explanation, but the president has been intensely involved in the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Hamas and Israel, as well as in negotiations with Congress over the budget.

The COP28 conference, convened by the United Nations, will begin on Thursday and will last two weeks. COP are the initials of “Conference of the Parties” —the nations that agreed to the framework to combat climate change drawn up by the UN in 1992. It has been done 28 times, which is why this year’s is called “COP28″.

The countries that signed the agreement promised to work to stabilize gas emissions and avoid “harmful” human interference in the climate system. The goal is for the planet to move away from fossil fuels that are raising planetary temperatures.

This year the United Arab Emirates, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, is hosting the talks. Conflicts in eastern Europe and the Middle East could make cooperation between nations even more difficult.