Canada PM to miss UN climate summit

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper won’t be attending the United Nations climate summit in New York this month.

Harper is the latest among top leaders to reveal he will not be attending the day-long summit, which is meant to build momentum for the Paris 2015 talks where countries will work to sign a global pact on greenhouse gas emissions.

{mosads}Harper will be attending a dinner hosted by the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that evening, however, where climate change will be discussed, said Jason MacDonald, Harper’s communications director.

Canada will be represented at the summit by Leona Aglukkaq, its minister of the environment, MacDonald said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will miss the summit as well.

U.N. officials said the absence of China and India’s leaders would not hinder the summit in any way and called the September meeting a “major turning point” for negotiations in the final 15 months before Paris.

President Obama will attend the Sept. 23 summit. The U.S. is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, coming in after China and ahead of India.