King Charles advised to abandon Cop27 plans by Liz Truss

Only today Truss’ party conference speech was disrupted by Greenpeace activists who lamented the prime minister’s decision to reverse the fracking ban. They were quickly removed and closely followed by a gaggle of journalists.

We recently wrote a story discussing the prime minister’s worrying early actions in depth, and questioned whether a sense of climate nihilism is now on the cards for the UK. These trepidations have only been worsened with the news that Truss objected to Charles attending next month’s summit.

Strictly speaking, Truss has no credit in the bank with environmentalists and she isn’t getting the benefit of the doubt here.

Nevertheless, it sounds as though Charles still has options to address world leaders in Egypt next month, should he wish to do so – presumably through pre-recorded videos. This remains ‘under active discussion’ and we expect to have some clarity on the situation soon.

It’s safe to assume, given Charles’ zealous support of environmental causes over several decades, that he will want to leave his mark on the conference.

He delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of Cop26 and during the Jubilee celebrations of June, highlighting the need for unprecedented levels of action against climate change.

Given the obvious conflict of interests in the UK at the moment, having King Charles address the summit feels not only necessary, but important. We need a unified front against climate change as we approach 2030 deadlines, and Cop27 can’t feel like just another rebuke of failures.