King Charles III warned the world Friday it must change its ways to avoid climate calamity after he flew over 3,000 miles to the COP 28 climate conference in Dubai to personally deliver his opening address.
The British monarch joined upwards of 80,000 other members of the global elites jetting into the two-week U.N.-sponsored meeting in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Among the host country’s multitude of guests are Bill Gates and Antoine Arnault, the son of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, the second richest man in the world after Elon Musk, according to Forbes magazine.
“Unless we rapidly repair and restore nature’s unique economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled,” King Charles told the World Climate Action Summit.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken disembarks from a U.S. military airplane upon arrival at Al-Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, December 1, 2023, for the COP28 climate summit. (SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) departs from the military section of BER Airport for his flight to Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). (Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd L) and his wife Emine Erdogan (L) arrive by jet to attend the World Climate Action Summit to be held as part of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on November 30, 2023. (TUR Presidency/ Murat Cetinmuhurdar / Handout /Anadolu via Getty)
The King told world leaders the dangers of climate change were no longer a distant risk, and urged them to take more action, cautioning the gathered heads of state, heads of government and business and climate delegates at Expo City Dubai that nature was being taken into “dangerous, uncharted territory” by human activity, and called for “nature-positive” change.
“I pray with all my heart that COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action,” he said, in reference to the 2021 summit held in France.
“We are seeing alarming tipping points being reached.”
Other British representatives at the conference include Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, and Keir Starmer. All four arrived or are set to travel on their own separate planes, Reuters reports.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chats with political journalists aboard his government plane as he travels to Dubai to attend the Cop28 summit. Picture date: Thursday November 30, 2023. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images)
Cop28 began Thursday and runs until December 12, with the UK government pledging £1.6 billion of taxpayer funds for international climate change projects throughout the summit.
That includes a £60 million contribution to a loss and damage fund for the world’s poorest countries worth a total of about 420 million U.S. dollars (£332 million), which was announced on Thursday.
Charles’ address was his first at the conference as King, having previously opened Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021 and Cop21 in Paris in 2015.
Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, center, on day two of the COP28 climate conference at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. (Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty)
The conference opened with a moment of silence — at the request of the Egyptian head of last year’s COP — for the civilians who have died in the conflict Israel-Hamas war.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who will represent the United States at COP28, will meet with regional officials on the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the White House.
COP28 in numbers
Overall some 104,000 people, including technical and security staff, have access this year to the “blue zone” dedicated to the actual climate negotiations and the pavilions of the states and organisations present, AFP reports.
That largely exceeds the previous record at last year’s U.N. climate summit in Egypt, COP27, which had 49,000 accredited attendees, and where oil and gas lobbyists outnumbered most national delegations, according to NGOs.
This year, there are nearly 23,500 people from official government teams.
Travelling with them are 27,208 policy experts, academics, representatives of professional organisations and senior company executives from oil giants.