US climate envoy John Kerry will hold talks with Indian, Emirati and Bangladesh leaders during an Asian tour starting on Thursday in an effort to narrow differences on climate change goals to slow global warming.
Notably, Kerry is not scheduled to hold talks with the leadership of Pakistan, which is one of the in the world to climate change.
The development comes on the heels of the announcement of a climate summit called by US President Joe Biden later this month (April 22-23) for which he has invited 40 world leaders, including those from India, China and Bangladesh, but not Pakistan.
Pakistan’s exclusion from the for the summit had raised eyebrows, with several analysts questioning the move given the country’s vulnerability to global warming and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s focus on the environment front. Others perceived it as a
Reacting to Pakistan’s exclusion from Kerry’s planned Asia trip, Michael Kugelman, a scholar of South Asian affairs at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, said:
“First Pakistan was left off the invitation list for the White House’s upcoming global climate summit. Now US climate czar John Kerry is headed to India and Bangladesh for consultations. Ouch.”
