Even as over 100 world leaders got together in Egypt on Monday to discuss the worsening condition of the Earth with regard to climate change, new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's appearance at the COP27 summit has been going viral, not as much for what he said at the summit but the way he left.
Addressing the world leaders and climate changer experts on Monday, Sunak declared that it was time to act faster on climate change because it is the “right thing to do” as he committed 11.6 billion pounds to the country commitment to the climate fund.
This was his first major address on the world stage since the Indian-origin leader took charge at 10 Downing Street. Referring to investment in "green energy" as a "fantastic source of new jobs and growth", Sunak pledged to build on the “room for hope” created during the UK's presidency of COP26 in Scotland last November.
It was Sunak's rather dramatic exit from an event at the summit, however, that has been going viral on social media. The Tory leader was reportedly rushed our of the room by his aides in the midst of the launch for the "forests partnership".
"UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has just been rushed out of the room by his aides during the middle of the launch for forests partnership at COP27," Director and editor of Carbon Brief, Leo Hickman, posted on microblogging site Twitter. He even shared a video of the incident:
In another tweet, Hickman recounts how Sunak's aide rushed to him in the middle of the event and whispered something in his ear on stage. It was only after a second aide appeared after the first one, seemingly insistent upon fetching Sunak, that the PM left.
"...there was a discussion going on about, it seems, whether to leave at that moment. But Sunak stayed but another aide made (the) decision to go back to him and urge him to leave," Hickman tweeted along with photos.
The tweet has been going viral with many on Twitter wondering why Sunak left like that and taking to conspiracy theories and jokes to explain the dramatic exit.
Many wondered whether it was a matter of national or political importance or some personal tragedy. However, as per reports, Sunak left not to attend to a matter of such critical urgency but to attend to a work commitment. As per British journalist Harry Cole, sources at Downing Road claimed Sunak has a work commitment with German and South Africans and that there wasn't any "big" reason behind the sudden exit.
Downing Street is yet to officially confirm the reports.
During his address in Sharm Al Sheikh on Monday, Sunak attacked Russia and said that developing nations should not be "unfairly burdened" to pay the price of another country's development.
“[Russian President] Putin's abhorrent war in Ukraine and rising energy prices across the world are not a reason to go slow on climate change – they are a reason to go faster,"
"Instead of developing countries being unfairly burdened with the carbon debt of richer nations and somehow expected to forgo that same path to growth, we are helping those countries deliver their own fast track to clean growth," he said.
He also used his speech to pay tribute to COP26 President, Indian-origin former minister Alok Sharma, "for his inspiring work" to deliver on the Glasgow climate pact of last year.
(With inputs from PTI)
