King Charles will not attend the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan next month as he continues to pace himself while undergoing treatment for cancer.
Organisers of the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference had hoped the lifelong environmentalist would be able to make the event where world leaders will gather in the capital Baku. Charles, who is preparing to travel to Australia next week alongside Queen Camilla for the start of their autumn tour, has been praised for his commitment to the summit in previous years.
In Dubai last December, the King gave a rousing call to arms in the opening statement of COP28. Charles warned the world remained “dreadfully far off track” in key climate targets from the Paris Agreement in 2015 and called for meaningful change.
Charles will not join COP29 in Azerbaijan next month (
Getty Images)
Royal sources said the government had elected not to ask the King to represent Britain at the event, although it is understood Number 10 felt “an abundance of caution” was necessary given the monarch’s current schedule. A source said: “The King will not be going to COP. He has not been asked by the government to attend the event and he is also mindful of his own commitments following the upcoming autumn tour.”
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. There are 198 countries that are parties to the Convention.
Charles had previously welcomed the president-designate of COP29, Mukhtar Babayev, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to his Clarence House home in London in July. The sovereign returned to duties in April and has continued his weekly cancer treatment since being diagnosed with the disease in February.
In between his weekly treatment in London, Charles has been largely spending time in Scotland, “immersing himself in nature to aid his recovery”, according to those close to the King. The Mirror revealed last week that doctors have signed off on Charles, 75, pausing his treatment for the duration of the autumn tour.
King Charles and Queen Camilla head to Australia next week (
Samir Hussein/WireImage)
The King and Queen arrive in Sydney on October 17 and will travel to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm), meeting a host of world leaders on the island nation, as part of their nine-day tour. With COP29 running from November 11-22, palace aides and government officials ruled it would be too much to ask the King to do.
On his return from Samoa, the monarch must prepare for the Remembrance Sunday services on November 10 at the Cenotaph as well as returning to his usual duties. Charles also turns 76 on November 14, although palace sources said there were no public celebrations planned and the King would spend the day working and then mark the day privately at home.
A source said: “The King would have relished the chance to attend the summit, but the autumn period is shaping up to be incredibly busy already. Given the tour to Australia and Samoa, as well as the amount of travel in between, a decision was taken for His Majesty not to attend the conference this year.”
It is the second time in three years Charles will not attend the summit, after controversially being advised by then Prime Minister Liz Truss to skip the 2022 event in Egypt. Britain’s shortest reigning PM, following her ill-fated 45 days in office, reportedly ‘objected’ to the King attending the conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Buckingham Palace later said: “With mutual friendship and respect there was agreement that the king would not attend.”
The late Queen Elizabeth II addressed the UN climate summit in November 2021 in Glasgow via a video message, with the blessing of the Tory government led by Ms Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson. Buckingham Palace confirmed the King would not be attending COP this year.