ALOK Sharma is the new President of the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow this November.
The former International Development Secretary has been promoted to the role of Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the new-look Cabinet and will take on the COP role.
No 10 recently made clear the new COP26 had to be a "big hitter," who could hold their own on the international stage.
The India-born politician, who moved to the UK when he was five, has risen quickly through the ranks from becoming a Foreign Office Minister in July 2016, through to the Minister of State for Housing, the Employment Minister, and in July, when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, being promoted to the Cabinet as the International Development Secretary.
Mr Sharma’s first task in his new role as COP26 will be to repair relations with the Scottish Government and put the preparations for the UN-sponsored global summit back on track.
He succeeds Claire Perry O’Neill, who was sacked from the COP26 role on Brexit Day, by Mr Johnson's chief advisor Dominic Cummings.
Mr Sharma supported Mr Johnson in the leadership contest, writing a piece for Conservative Home, saying he was “best placed” to lead the party and the country.
A Remainer, the 52-year-old quickly swing behind Brexit, saying last year how the country “must be prepared to leave at the end of October” because never-ending negotiations would “sound the death knell of the Conservative Party as a major political force”.
Mr Sharman, a former accountant, who represents Reading West, is married with two children.
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