President Biden won’t attend this year’s global climate summit, according to news reports.
A White House official told The New York Times that Biden would not attend. A U.S. official told Reuters the same.
While no official reason was given for Biden’s absence, officials suggested to the Times that the Israel-Hamas war was taking up much of the president’s focus.
White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández declined to confirm or deny the reports, saying in an email, “We don’t have any travel updates to share for the President at this time.”
He did confirm that climate envoy John Kerry, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi and White House advisor John Podesta will attend.
This week and next week, global leaders will gather in Dubai for annual climate negotiations. Biden attended past summits in 2021 and 2022.
Friday and Saturday, the conference will include a World Leaders Summit where heads of state were invited to speak about climate change.
The world leaders portion of the conference will take place on Friday and Saturday. The president’s official schedule does not list him as traveling abroad during that time.
