LONDON, United Kingdom (Parliament Politics Magazine) – According to Buckingham Palace, King Charles will not go to the COP27 climate change meeting, which will take place in Egypt next month.
It was in response to a Sunday Times article that claimed Liz Truss, the prime minister, had “ordered” the King not to attend.
According to the Palace, Ms. Truss was asked for advice by the King and provided it.
The King’s absence from the event was agreed upon “with mutual friendship and respect,” according to the Palace.
The King, who was the Prince of Wales until ascending to the throne last month, had said he would visit the annual meeting.
The BBC brought up to the Palace that the King must be genuinely dissatisfied given his several decades of ardent environmental work, according to royal journalist Jonny Dymond.
The King was never unaware of his responsibility as the sovereign to follow the recommendations of the government, the Palace said, saying that the notion that he felt uneasy was untrue.
The King, then known as Prince Charles, visited Egypt in November with the support of the then-government to encourage the Egyptian government to continue its efforts. He met President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi during the planned trip.
The King has already shown his strong dedication to environmental causes and, as Prince of Wales, has a long history of advocating for measures to mitigate the consequences of climate change.
He only spoke at the COP26 inauguration ceremony in Glasgow last year, when the UK was the summit’s host nation. A speech by the late Queen was also delivered at the occasion through a video connection.
Tobias Ellwood, a senior Conservative MP, expressed his hope that “common sense would prevail” and the King would be permitted to travel to Egypt.
King Charles, or Prince Charles as he was known then, was one of the conference’s star speakers and made a passionate plea for world leaders to take a “warlike footing” in the fight against climate change.
After what appears, at least on the surface, to be a dispute-free consensus that he shouldn’t attend, he’ll need to be extra cautious this year.
But it’s important to remember that this is about not participating “in person,” which could leave the door open for further contributions from the virtual world.
There will unavoidably be rumours that the King was actually disappointed at this, despite all the constitutional smoothing. He has been passionately advocating for such environmental causes for decades.
Additionally, it may increase the likelihood of early conflicts between a new PM and a new king.
The King, however, has always been aware that as sovereign, he would have to behave within a separate set of politically neutral limitations. It is a question of different norms and roles.
The Egyptian government claims it wants to utilise its COP27 chair to pressure other nations to fulfil their commitments to help underdeveloped nations deal with the catastrophic effects of climate change.
Prior to the meeting, there has been criticism, though. According to Human Rights Watch, Egypt has severely restricted the activities of environmental organisations. Cairo authorities deemed the information to be “misleading.”
From November 8 to 16, the beachfront city of Sharm el-Sheikh will host COP27, a United Nations gathering.
The following week, King Charles will participate in his first public events since the conclusion of the official time of grief, which will include a reception for South Asian communities from around the UK in Edinburgh and a trip to Dunfermline Abbey in Fife.
