Tony Abbott has once again nailed his colours to the mast on climate change, confirming that he would not be attending a major United Nations climate summit in New York next Tuesday, despite the fact he was arriving there for a UN Security Council meeting just one day later.
The climate summit, hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, is considered to be an important precursor to the meeting in Paris next year, at which UN leaders hope to carve out an international agreement to limit climate change.
Abbott, who has, in his own words, “used some colourful language describing the so-called settled science of climate change” in the past, told ABC Radio he would not be joining 125 other world leaders – including US President Barack Obama and UK PM David Cameron – at the summit, because he had important business in parliament.
“My first duty in a sense is to the Australian parliament and that’s where I’ll be early in the week,” he said on Tuesday. “There are quite a lot of things happening in the Australian parliament in the next week or so.”
But Abbott, who will send foreign minister Julie Bishop to the climate summit in his stead, will arrive in New York just one day after the event, having found time in his schedule to participate in UN talks on Iraq and terrorism.
It’s a decision that has surprised and, clearly, disappointed EU climate chief Connie Hedegarrd, who told ABC Radio National it was “a pity” that not every head of state was going to attend.
“The sad fact is, climate change is worsening, almost by the day,” Hedegaard said in an interview aired on ABC RN’s morning program. But she stressed that there were “125 concerned heads of state” who had sent a strong signal to the rest of the world, that “they know they have a role to play and a responsibility to take in order for the world to address climate change.”
When asked if she thought Abbott’s decision not to attend reflected his attitude to climate change, Hedegaard said she didn’t know what his reasons were, but that the world would interpret “who is showing up and who will not be showing up.”
“That’s for your prime minister and your government to decide,” she said, “what kind of profile they want in this.”
Of course, Abbott is not alone in not attending. China’s president Xi Jinping (Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli will represent China at the summit) and India’s prime minister Narenda Modi are also absenting themselves from the talks, as is Abbott’s ideological doppelganger, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Unlike Abbott, Harper hasn’t given any indication as to why he isn’t personally attending the conference (Canada’s environment minister will be there). But like Abbott, the Canadian PM will arrive in New York just after it – in Harper’s case to attend the UN’s Every Woman, Every Child event on September 25.
As for China and India, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has said that people shouldn’t read too much into the fact that their heads of state aren’t personally attending.
“The fact is that they had fully intended to be represented at the top level and for reasons that have nothing to do with the climate summit at the at the last minute they are not able to be there,” she said.
India’s Modi will being travelling to the US shortly after the summit to meet with Obama, and India has said the leaders expect to speak about climate change.
And Hedegaard – who just returned from a trip to India – says she is expecting a strong commitment to climate change action from the new Modi government. “The environment minister of India will be going there,” she said.
“I hope we will hear a strong commitment from the new government that they will try and be ready to tell the rest of the world what they’re planning to do first quarter next year, and I think the same is the case for China.”
In Canada, reports are that some are disappointed with Harper’s decision not to attend, and learn more about climate solutions.
“Ever since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister, Canada’s position at UN climate conferences has been to undermine discussions, block progress and sabotage negotiations,” Canada’s Green Party leader Elizabeth May told Yahoo Canada. “That’s why we’ve received more Fossil of the Day awards than any other country,” she said.
