Democrats to join Cop31 climate talks as US government stays away again
The US government will again send no official delegation to the UN climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, while Democrats plan to attend after their midterm gains.
The Democratic Party plans to send representatives to the Cop31 UN climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, even as the US government again sends no official delegation to the talks. It marks the second consecutive year in which the United States has had no official presence at the annual gathering, which begins on Monday, 9 November.
The absence stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the world. Almost every other country is sending a delegation to the summit, leaving Washington as a conspicuous exception at a conference that brings together governments to review progress on emissions and to negotiate new commitments. President Donald Trump has described the climate crisis as a hoax and has withdrawn the United States from the international climate framework, a decision that has kept the country outside the formal process for two years running.
Democrats see the moment as an opportunity to recover ground lost during the Trump era. Their midterm performance has been read by climate advocates as a boost for optimism about future US engagement, and party figures are keen to show that the country's climate commitments have not been abandoned altogether. Attending Antalya is intended to signal that a Democratic-led approach to climate policy would bring the United States back to the negotiating table, reversing the setbacks of the past several years.
The question now is how much influence a party delegation can exert from outside the official government structure. Negotiations at the summit are conducted between national governments, so Democratic participation is unlikely to carry the formal weight of a US delegation. Its significance lies instead in what it says about the direction of American politics and about the expectations other countries may hold for a future administration.
The UK energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, has argued that Cop31 serves the national interest. Her remarks reflect a wider view among many governments that international cooperation on energy and climate remains central to economic and security planning, regardless of the position taken by the world's largest historical emitter. Her comments were made as the summit approached and before the talks had formally begun.
Cop31 is the UN's annual climate conference, and each edition is watched closely for signs of whether countries are on track to meet the goals they have set for themselves. The summit's location in Turkey, and the decision of nearly all other nations to attend in person, will shape the atmosphere in which the Democratic delegation arrives. Whether its presence translates into renewed US credibility at the table will become clearer once the talks get under way.
Source: theguardian.com
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