WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) – US President Donald Trump said his absence from a United Nations climate summit isn’t intended as a snub and pointed out that he’s being briefed on catastrophic flooding in the Houston area.

“It’s not a snub at all. I’m very busy, I’m going on the flights today,” Trump said on Sunday (Sept 22) as he departed the White House for events in Texas and Ohio ahead of the UN General Assembly.

“The floods are very important to me, and uh, climate change – everything is very important.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he believes the US can still pull its weight on climate change, even though Trump is skipping the summit on Monday and has worked to roll back restrictions on everything from vehicle to power plant emissions.

Cities and businesses are helping fill part of the void left by national governments, including the US, on climate issues, the UN chief told reporters in New York on Friday.

Guterres is pushing countries to raise their commitments to wean the world away from fossil fuels and said he expects an “impressive” number of leaders to announce commitments during the summit to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“The influence of governments in societies has diminished,” Guterres said.

“Other actors are becoming fundamental, especially the business community and the local authorities. That movement largely compensates for the lack of positive engagement by the government. We are pushing as much as possible for that.”

Still, government leaders dominate the agenda at the climate summit, which comes ahead of the annual UN General Assembly meetings that will bring about 200 prime ministers and presidents to New York for talks on everything from US-Iran tensions to the crisis in Venezuela and global trade.

The Climate Action Summit on Monday will feature French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announcing new pledges to address an issue for which Guterres says time for effective action is running out.

Other speakers include Indian President Narendra Modi, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.

In the lead-up to the UN gathering, several large companies and cities announced voluntary efforts to deal with climate change.

Amazon.com Inc. founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos this month announced a plan to meet the goals of the Paris agreement 10 years early, while more than 500 investors called on governments to take more action to combat climate change.

The summit will be preceded by a meeting of youth leaders on Saturday, as activists like Swedish teen Greta Thunberg call on countries to do more.

Guterres said he was encouraged by youth activism. As he spoke, young people from Sydney to New York City were skipping school to protest the climate crisis.

Guterres has reached out to dozens of leaders, urging them to halt the building of coal power stations and make more binding commitments to reduce carbon emissions.

In response to questions about why leaders from several coal-reliant countries, such as Japan and Australia, aren’t speaking at the summit, Guterres said every country that sent him a serious proposal to tackle climate change was invited to speak.

Capitalism and market-based solutions such as carbon taxes and reducing fossil fuel subsidies can go a long way to fixing the problem, Guterres said.

“What we are saying to those governments is to stop the distortion of markets that do not allow markets to act in a proper way,” he said. “If the markets are allowed to function, they are on our side.”

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