King Charles urges ‘transformational action’ at COP28 climate summit

King Charles III challenged a gathering of world leaders to take “real transformative action” to slow the spiral of greenhouse gas emissions, declaring that “the hope of the world rests on the decisions you must make.”

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Summit in Dubai, Charles mentioned a cascade of climate-related natural disasters that had ravaged the world over the past year: forest fires in Canada; floods in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; cyclones in the Pacific Ocean; and a drought in East Africa.

“We are taking the natural world beyond balanced norms and boundaries, and into dangerously uncharted territory,” he said. “Our choice now is starker and darker: How dangerous are we actually willing to make our world?”

For Charles, who was asked by the British government not to attend the 2022 COP meeting in Egypt, this was a high-profile return to the stage on an issue he has been championing since before climate change was part of the everyday vocabulary.

The king showed a familiar mix of evangelical urgency and detailed understanding of the details of global climate negotiations. He spoke dramatically about the looming disaster of climate change, but also praised insurance companies for their role in supporting climate finance schemes.

“I have spent much of my life trying to warn about the existential threats we face,” said Charles, who recently turned 75. But despite his efforts, he noted that “there is now 30 percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. then there was” when he first started warning about greenhouse gas emissions.

“I am very concerned that we are so terribly off course,” he said.

Charles is among several British leaders scheduled to appear at COP28 and it was not clear whether their messages would be in sync. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who will speak later on Friday, has indicated he would relax some of the UK’s emissions reduction targets if they imposed an intolerable burden on ordinary people.

For Charles, who does not face an election next year, the challenge of climate change is simpler and the solution clearer. Saying that rising temperatures posed an existential risk to humanity, he called on leaders to take collective action to protect those most directly harmed by climate change.

“The dangers are no longer distant risks,” he said. “Real action is definitely needed to stem the growing toll on the most vulnerable victims.”

“The Earth is not ours,” Charles concluded. “We belong to the earth.”