China News Service, October 28. According to comprehensive foreign media reports, the British Prime Minister's spokesman said on the 27th local time that due to "other urgent tasks", Prime Minister Sunak is not expected to attend next week's COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
Data map: British Prime Minister Sunak.
"The prime minister is not expected to attend the summit in Egypt as there are other pressing tasks at home," the spokesman said.
The spokesperson also said: "The UK government is absolutely committed to supporting COP27 and the international community's work to take action on climate change and protect nature."
COP27, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, will be held in M Sheikh, Egypt from 6 to 18 November - after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will launch plans to develop UK tax and spending the end of the second day.
Britain will send other senior officials to the climate summit, the statement said, according to Reuters.
According to the BBC, Sunak was accused of a "leadership failure" after his spokesman said he would not attend the COP27 climate summit.
Labour said Sunak's decision not to attend was a "huge failure of climate leadership".
Ed Miliband, Labour's shadow energy and climate change secretary, was quoted by the BBC as saying, "World leaders from around the world have come together to discuss how we can deal with the biggest long-term threat we face...and our prime minister can't be there." I think This is a complete failure for generations today and for generations to come.
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It is reported that former Prime Minister Truss was scheduled to attend the meeting.
The annual UN climate summit aims to help governments agree on measures to limit the rise in global temperatures.
Last year, the UK hosted the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.