COP26: Boris Johnson to travel to UN and White House to push for climate action ahead of crunch summit
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit President Joe Biden next week
in a bid to drum up support ahead of the COP26 Summit on climate
change.
Mr Johnson will travel to New York for a meeting at the UN
on Monday, before travelling to Washington to meet Mr Biden at the
White House for the first time for discussions on climate, COVID and
international security.
It is hoped the meetings will help galvanise momentum in the lead up to COP26 - crunch climate talks the UK is hosting in Glasgow in November.
Speaking
ahead of the visit, the prime minister said: "World leaders have a
small window of time left to deliver on their climate commitments ahead
of COP26.
"My message to those I meet this week will be clear:
future generations will judge us based on what we achieve in the coming
months."
While in New York Mr Johnson will make a speech at the UN General
Assembly and meet a group of world leaders to discuss actions that can
be taken to help mitigate the impact of global warming on developing
countries.
Around 100 world leaders are confirmed to attend COP26, which represent a
once in a generation opportunity to make progress to keep global
warming below 1.5C
The prime minister's trip to Washington is his first since Mr Biden took office.
He will also meet Vice President Kamala Harris and senior members of the US House of Representatives and Senate.
These
discussions will be an important opportunity to build on the climate
commitments made by leaders, including the Mr Johnson and Mr Biden, at
the G7 Summit in Cornwall.
At
the meeting in June, the G7 agreed to take action to tackle climate
change and drive green growth around the world, including by mobilising
$100 billion in climate finance and phasing out the use of coal
internationally.
They will also discuss the situation in Afghanistan and how to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the region.
