Chile’s environment minister who is chairing next week’s climate summit in Madrid says her country’s leader will skip the meeting to take care of the crisis back home.
Speaking in the Spanish capital five days before the beginning of the COP25 meeting, Carolina Schmidt confirmed Wednesday that President Sebastián Piñera will be carrying out “urgent work in Chile.”
The United Nations agreed last month to relocate the climate meeting to Spain from Chile, which has been rocked by virulent anti-government protests that have led to at least 26 deaths and nearly 4,000 injured, including both civilians and police.
During the Dec. 2-13 summit, countries need to set the rules to reach the agreed goal of limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement.
