Photo/Illutration From left: U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 7 (Pool via AP)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has skipped the COP27 summit on climate change in Egypt to focus on issues facing Japan, sources said.

Representatives from more than 100 countries attended the World Leaders’ Summit for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference on Nov. 7 and 8.

Egypt had also invited Kishida to the summit.

Sources close to Kishida said he “wanted to go to COP27 but couldn’t” because he is busy during the current extraordinary Diet session dealing with such issues as the Unification Church.

Kishida is also scheduled to visit Southeast Asian countries starting on Nov. 11.

Officials at the prime minister’s office cited a lack of prominent policies that Japan can announce at COP27 as another reason for Kishida’s absence.

Kishida attended the COP26 last year and announced that Japan would provide additional support of up to around $10 billion (about 1.5 trillion yen) to developing countries.

A couple of days before COP27, Environment Minister Akihiro Nishimura told reporters he hoped that Kishida would attend the summit.

Instead, Nishimura is set to attend the conference during its second week.

Although Masatoshi Akimoto, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, is also scheduled to go to COP27, some within the ruling coalition would rather he skip the event.

Akimoto said that he hopes to have meetings with foreign dignitaries or people in the wind power industry at the conference.

“The COP is a place to create business opportunities,” an official of a nongovernmental organization said. “If Japan uses offshore wind power generation more, related industries will have more opportunities to get established in the country. We want politicians to express more interest in this.”

Japan and Canada are the only Group of Seven members whose leaders are not at COP27.

U.S. President Joe Biden will attend the event on Nov. 11 after the mid-term elections.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared in his speech at the COP27 summit on Nov. 7 that his country will triple funding for climate adaptation from 500 million pounds (84 billion yen) in 2019 to 1.5 billion pounds in 2025.

Sunak had originally planned to miss COP27, but that decision was criticized by opposition parties and the British public.

Japan will host the G-7 summit next year.

(This article was written by Masatoshi Toda and Shinichi Sekine.)

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