Vice President Kamala Harris left for the world's largest climate conference on Friday as critics say it will have the biggest carbon footprint since the annual summit began due to the record number of people invited.
President Joe Biden decided not to attend the Cop28 conference in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and instead sent his number two to represent the United States. Biden has attended the past two summits.
The conference has been engulfed in controversy as Cop28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber has denied allegations that his team tried to use the international climate talks to strike side deals on fossil fuels for the UAE's state oil and gas company.
Harris will join the 400,000 people expected to travel to Dubai for the two-week event – the largest attendance ever. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Special Envoy John Kerry, climate advisor Ali Zaidi and clean energy advisor John Podesta are also going to Dubai.
Vice President Kamala Harris left for Cop28 on Friday, where she will be present in Biden's place
King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are also present.
They are part of the 97,000 official delegates, more than double Cop26 in Glasgow, the previous largest summit.
“Given the number of people expected here, this is likely to have the highest carbon footprint of any police force to date,” Richard Black, senior fellow at the think tank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, told the Telegraph.
The UAE has said it will offset emissions from the event, but has not provided details on exactly how that will happen.
Harris' visit to the two-week conference will be short-lived. She is scheduled to leave Washington on Friday and return on Sunday. She is expected to speak publicly on Saturday.
It will not only be the climate on the agenda. Harris is the highest-ranking US leader to visit an Arab nation since the war between Israel and Hamas began nearly two months ago.
A White House official said her meetings with other leaders at the summit will also include discussions about the conflict.
“While in Dubai, the Vice President will have the opportunity to meet and consult with regional leaders on the latest developments in Gaza, and she will focus in particular on planning for the day ahead,” said the official.
“She will emphasize that any post-conflict plan for Gaza must include a clear political horizon for the Palestinian people and ensure that Gaza and the West Bank are reunified under one entity.”
COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has denied allegations that the UAE is using meetings at the conference to strike side deals on fossil fuels
Jordan's King Abdullah II, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates and COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Chinese Vice Prime Minister Ding Xuexiang, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the Vice President of the Republic of the Gambia Muhammed BS Jallow, the Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, the Comoros President Azali Assoumani and the Vice President of Benin, Mariam Chabi Talata, poses for a family photo during Cop28
Harris will talk publicly about the Biden administration's agenda to accelerate the spread of clean energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders at the conference will also discuss a framework for a new international fund to finance irreversible climate damage in developing countries.
It is unclear whether Harris will meet with UAE leader Al Jaber, who also heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
He came under fire after reports that he planned to use meetings at Cop28 to lobby foreign government officials over oil and gas deals, according to a collection of internal documents obtained by Center for Climate Reporting, a nonprofit organization.
The documents include briefing notes showing that he planned to discuss these side agreements with fifteen countries at the climate conference.
He denies the allegations and has seen such briefing notes.
“These allegations are false, untrue, inaccurate and not accurate,” he said at a press conference in Dubai on Wednesday. “And it is an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency.”
“Let me ask you a question: do you think the UAE, or myself, will need the COP, or the COP presidency, to broker business deals or commercial relationships?” Al-Jaber asked.
“This country has been built over the last fifty years around its ability to build bridges and create relationships and partnerships.”
It is not clear how many of the meetings actually took place.
Al Jaber said all his meetings with officials focused on Cop28.
The two-week conference is seen as a crucial way to tackle the climate crisis at a time when global temperatures are rising and extreme weather events are affecting people around the world.
The human rights organization Amnesty International called on Al-Jaber to resign from its role at the summit.
“Sultan Al Jaber claims his insider knowledge of the fossil fuel industry qualifies him to lead a crucial climate summit, but it increasingly looks like a fox is guarding the hen house,” said Amnesty International climate advisor Ann Harrison.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry attends Cop28
King Charles III speaks during the opening ceremony at the Cop28 Climate Summit
Meanwhile, climate activists have criticized Biden for skipping the event this year. Biden personally attended the annual UN climate summit in 2021 and 2022.
Young voters — a group Biden is courting — cite climate change as one of their top concerns.
Biden has made the issue one of his priorities – he returned the US to the Paris climate accords and his Inflation Reduction Act includes provisions to cut carbon emissions.
But many young voters say the government still hasn't done enough.
A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll in July found that 57% of Americans disapprove of how Biden has handled climate policy, including 59% of voters between 18 and 29 years old.