How King Charles can make himself relevant
Sally Quinn is an author and journalist who has written extensively for The Post. Last November, soon after his mothers death, the new King Charles III was scheduled to attend COP27, the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to deliver a major address. The Egypt trip would have been his first overseas trip as king. Suddenly, his trip was canceled. The also-new Tory prime minister, Liz Truss, who had just succeeded Boris Johnson, nixed it. Truss, who would be prime minister for about 20 minutes until she blew up her government and got thrown out by her own party, was not a big climate change activist. She marched into a personal audience with Charles and made her objections clear to him. Though those objections were not spelled out publicly, one can only assume they were political. Since a monarch is required to be above politics, and must get the approval of the government for any international trip, the plan was called off. The monarchy is said to be antiquated a kind of taxpayer-funded soap opera with great costumes and the world is about to see all that glitter on display during Charless coronation May 6. But what if the new kings first instinct the trip to Egypt is a harbinger of a reign that could transcend alienated second sons, disgraced brothers and all the other Windsorland tabloid drama? The way he can accomplish that is to declare, and convince the British public, that the climate crisis is not a political issue. And it is not. If anything, it is a spiritual one. Climate deniers would like to make it about politics, but their real agenda is about money. In the short run, climate action might hurt corporations and big business. In 2015, then-Prince Charles delivered the opening speech at COP21 in Paris, warning: In damaging our climate we become the architects of our own destruction. Again at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, he gave another opening speech suggesting a vast military style campaign against climate change. Charles has been a dedicated environmentalist for most of his life, occasionally inviting ridicule for his ardent views on the subject. He even retrofitted his Aston Martin to run on surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process. He has also been criticized for what his detractors call a double standard, living a life of wealth and privilege, flying on private planes while opining on the need to cut down on carbon emissions. He has refused to allow wind turbines in the Duchy of Cornwall, calling them a horrendous blot on the landscape. He is fully aware of the criticism and has spoken several times since his mothers death of changing some of the royal residences Balmoral Castle , Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace from private spaces to public places. About Buckingham Palace , his mothers residence, he has said, its upkeep, both from a cost and environmental perspective, is not sustainable. Charles is in a position to influence people. He is involved in many climate initiatives, including his Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) to move businesses toward climate-friendly policies. He also proposed Terra Carta , a set of principles to put sustainability at the heart of business operations. King Charles has been most effective connecting the NGO with the business community, says Anne Finucane, former vice chair of Bank of America and a member of SMI. The climate crisis is not a political issue, says John F. Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, who has worked with Charles over the years. Kerry and his team founded the First Movers coalition, and have done events in conjunction with Charless Sustainable Markets Initiative . It is a global existential challenge which threatens the security of every nation on the planet, Kerry says. King Charless involvement has been visionary. This is the kings moment to carve out his own role as a pragmatic spiritual leader. When he is crowned, he will accept his role of Defender of the Faith, though he has said he will be the defender of faiths (including people of no faith), following in the footsteps of the queen, who was keenly aware of the multicultural society she presided over. He is the supreme governor of the Church of England, which has voted to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions for its operations by 2030. A statement by the church says, We believe that responding to the climate crisis is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard Gods creation and achieve a just world. In his new role, Charles will be able to present the issue of the climate crisis as one of sacrality, that which inspires awe and reverence. British religious historian Karen Armstrong writes in her new book, Sacred Nature, that the great religions of the world embrace the notion of the sacrality of creation. We have seen how nature was revered by the great sages, mystics and prophets of the past, she writes. It is now up to us to revive that knowledge and commitment and recover our bond with the natural world. She quotes William Wordsworth There hath past away a glory from the earth as a call to action and Samuel Taylor Coleridge as seeing the divine as inseparable from nature. Charles is in a position to move the monarchy in a new direction. He should continue to make it his lifes work to do everything in his power to save the planet. In a 2021 study of people with high socioeconomic status, the journal Nature Energy found that while members of this class inordinately contribute to greenhouse gas emissions as consumers, they also can have a significant role in mitigating them through their roles as active citizens, investors, role models and organizational participants. Charles has checked most of those boxes and he needs to continue to do so by downsizing the monarchy. He could and will, I predict, make a huge difference. It wont be easy. The crown is heavy. The question is whether Charles will not only reign, but revolutionize. What has he got to lose? What are they going to do, fire him?