NICOLA Sturgeon is set to speak at a major New York Times event during COP27 in Egypt next week.
The prestigious publication is hosting a number of discussions in Sharm el Sheikh from November 8-10 as part of its Climate Forward event.
Scotland’s First Minister will appear at the “On the Verge of Progress: Where Will COP27 Take Us” panel at the international climate summit, with speakers like the World Trade Organisation’s director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former prime minister Boris Johnson and Egypt’s environment minister Yasmine Fouad also due to attend.
Sturgeon also attended the newspaper’s events in Glasgow last year, held at SWG3 during COP26’s stint in the city.
The First Minister is set to be in Egypt for a few days at the start of the major conference, and is understood to have several events lined up.
On this New York Times panel, she will appear with international climate reporter Somini Sengupta, CEO of the European Climate Foundation Laurence Tubiana and Egypt’s Fouad.
The event will take place on Tuesday morning from 9.30am and can be viewed online if viewers register here.
The news emerged as King Charles welcomed world leaders, business figures and environmentalists to Buckingham Palace for a reception before the UN summit kicks off. The King is not set to attend next week’s gathering.
Rishi Sunak, who has recently U-turned on plans not to attend COP, was among a small group of guests who met the King in a separate room before the main reception was held in the ballroom and the Prime Minister gave a short address to those invited.
In the state dining room were leading figures including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey.
Among the guests were Sir Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, former New York mayor and business news mogul Mike Bloomberg, and yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur, whose foundation is working to tackle climate change.
In his speech the Prime Minister also paid tribute to the King for “…helping to find practical solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss for more than 50 years, long before COP1 let alone COP27.”
He added: “The reduction in global emissions pledged during our presidency is now equivalent to more than six times the annual emissions of the entire global aviation industry.”
