Political leaders including prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, are set to attend a climate change event being held by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace later today. The reception is also being attended by 200 international business leaders and decision makers.
Among other prominent attendees are the US Climate envoy John Kerry, and the COP26 president Alok Sharma.
At the Buckingham Palace event., guests are set to outline details of what practical measures can be taken to combat climate change, alongside their plans for next week’s COP27 summit. Mr Sunak is expected to give a short speech.
Although King Charles III is not expected to speak personally at the reception, it is understood that his Sustainable Markets Initiative is likely to feature heavily.
The official line is that King Charles III is not attending this month’s COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh by mutual consent. However, today’s event at Buckingham Palace is very much being seen as a public signal of King Charles III interest in COP27.
At last year’s COP26 event held in Glasgow, the then Prince Charles delivered a speech, in which he said that climate change and biodiversity loss posed an “existential threat”. He argued that the threat was such, that “we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing”.
In further signs that the decision for the King not to attend the summit may have been more heavily driven by the Truss administration than Buckingham Palace, Downing Street suggested yesterday that the King might have been able to join delegates in Egypt if Rishi Sunak had been in post earlier in the year.
The United Nations conference on climate change, otherwise known as the Conference of he Parties (COP), takes place every year. At COP26 held in Scotland last year, nearly 200 countries signed up to the Glasgow Climate Pact, committing to the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees.
After initial claiming that he was unable to attend COP27, given his need to prepare for the government’s financial statement on Nov 17, Rishi Sunak is now flying to Egypt on Sunday.
