Very Likely, Some Experts Say
During his tenure as Britain’s longest-serving Prince of Wales, Prince Charles consistently championed environmental causes that included devoting landscapes and architecture to carbon capture. Amid speculation about whether the newly crowned King Charles III will continue his environmental activism, a new media report suggests that he will.
In a September 15 report by ABC News, Prof. David Victor of the University of California, San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy, noted that King Charles “is taking the crown very late in age, and everybody knows what he stands for—and for a whole range of topics.”
Previously, King Charles “used his position to raise awareness, not just in the UK but around the world. He has, for a long, long time, probably earlier than many politicians, understood the importance of this issue,” said Bob Ward, a scholar at The London School of Economics and Political Science's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
"He was talking about this before it was cool,” Alden Meyer, a senior associate at E3G, a London-based think tank on climate policy, told ABC News.
What King Charles has said about the environment wasn’t always popular, but these actions now bolster confidence that he will continue his advocacy. As recently as 2021, when the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) convened, the monarch said that young people feel “frustration” regarding the environment and that leaders should take note.
ABC News cited King Charles’ estate, Highgrove House, as evidence that he has already applied his passion for the environment to his personal life. Purchased in 1980, the estate’s grounds have organic gardens and a “wild garden” that serves as a wildlife habitat. The estate also features solar panels and a “natural sewage system.”
Following its September 15 report, ABC News stated in an October 2 report that the new king “has decided not to attend the international climate change summit in Egypt next month, fueling speculation that the new monarch will have to rein in his environmental activism now that he has ascended the throne.”