King Charles will deliver COP28 opening speech, Buckingham Palace says

King Charles will deliver COP28 opening speech, Buckingham Palace says

LONDON (Reuters) – King Charles will give the opening address at the COP28 U.N. global climate summit in Dubai, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday.

It will be the third time that the British monarch, 74, who has campaigned on environmental issues for more than 50 years, will deliver the opening speech, having done so at Glasgow’s COP26 and at COP21 in Paris.

The summit runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, and Charles will also attend a reception to launch the inaugural COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum which is running alongside the event, the palace said.

“While in the UAE, the king will take the opportunity to have meetings with regional leaders, ahead of COP28,” the statement added.

Charles was unable to attend COP27 in Egypt, with newspaper reports suggesting the former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has asked him not to go.

This time round, the palace said he was attending on behalf of the government and following an invite from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates.

While the king will be going, two U.S. officials told Reuters this week that U.S. President Joe Biden was unlikely to attend. At the summit in Glasgow, Biden had praised Charles’ leadership on climate issues.

At the negotiations in Dubai, countries are hoping to strike a deal on an increase in rewewable energy capacity at the global climate negotiations, which will focus on the gaps in the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by William James and Alison Williams)