Environmental Activism Have Lost One Big Voice ln Charles

Outspoken about the "existential" threat posed by climate change when he was Prince of Wales, King Charles III on Friday seemed to signal an effective end to his decades-long public advocacy for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, which are warming global temperatures.

In his first speech as king, Charles pledged to uphold the constitutional principles that kept the sovereign, including his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, from weighing in on what could be seen as political matters.. My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities

,he said ."It will no longer be possible to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I cared so deeply, but I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.

For more than 40 years, Charles had championed environmental causes, including the need to transition the global economy off of fossil fuels so as to avert a climate catastrophe. In November, at the start of COP 26, the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Charles said climate change was an "existential threat to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing" and called on world governments to begin "radically transforming our current fossil fuel based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable

On Thursday, newly appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss announced measures to try to blunt the impact of skyrocketing energy prices over the coming months, including lifting a ban on hydraulic fracking and green-lighting new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. She has also appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg, who environmental actvists call a climate science denier, to oversee the country's energy sector.

In 2020, Charles addressed the World Economic Forum, calling for "a shift in our economic model that places nature and the world's transition to net zero at the heart of how we operate."

Charles had delivered countless speeches on addressing climate change, written books on the topic and had made the issue central to his role as Prince of Wales.

That decision also earned him ample criticism from those who saw his activism as overstepping the bounds of the monarchy. In his Friday speech, the new king did not mention the words "climate change," and that, in and of itself, spoke volumes

Olufemi Aduwo

Permanent Representative,

Centre For Convention On Democratic lntegrity (CCDI) to United Nations