Around 70 world leaders, including about half of the richest nations from the G20, are expected to attend and address the leaders summit, including Brazil’s incoming president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Italy’s new far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

Negotiations over new climate measures will be held during the second week, which will be attended by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Last week the former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong – a member of the influential Pacific Elders’ Voice group – told the Herald and The Age he believed Australia’s bid to host a COP would have been strengthened by Albanese’s attendance.

But Conroy said he believed people understood that “the prime minister can’t be everywhere at once”.

The talks in Egypt take place against the backdrop of competing global crises, including war in Ukraine, which is exacerbating food shortages in Africa, which are caused by drought and have been accelerated by climate change.

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After visiting Somalia and Kenya, where 1.5 million people have been displaced by drought and food shortages, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said last month it was clear that the people who were the least responsible for global warming were paying the highest price for it.

“It is tragic and it is shameful, and the world should not look away,” he said.

Developing nations grouped in a UN coalition known as the G77, plus China, are expected to demand wealthier nations increase finance for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and to create a mechanism to pay for loss and damage caused by it.

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