King Charles has long been outspoken on issues close to his heart, though a royal aide claims his approach hasn’t always received the royal seal of approval
King Charles III’s approach to climate change once caused “concern” within Buckingham Palace, a former aide has claimed. Long before he ascended the throne in 2022, the royal began raising awareness about the likes of sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and biodiversity.
Renowned for his organic lifestyle, Charles also transformed Highgrove House into an estate that champions low-impact, eco-friendly farming.
In an effort to influence his policy, he also wrote several letters to government ministers, including Ken Clarke, the former Education Secretary.
According to a former royal aide, Charles was “the only person in the Royal Family who cared about climate change” – and this sparked opinions from his siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew, and late mother Queen Elizabeth II.
As quoted in Valentine Low’s Power and the Palace book, the aide said: “They would sometimes get exercised about the Prince getting a bit ahead of the skis, becoming a bit more engaged in some of these sensitive issues than the Queen thought was necessarily wise.
“He was about the only person in the royal family who cared about climate change. He was thirty years ahead of public opinion.”
According to the book: “Other members of the Royal Family, including Princess Anne and Prince Andrew, thought that his enthusiasm for such issues bordered on the naïve.”
The aide went on to claim that there was “a natural and understandable concern that the relationship with he government should not be jeopardised by him becoming a little too outspoken on the issues that he cared about”.
A Palace source also claimed that the late Queen’s view of Charles’ habit of writing to ministers was, ‘Just don’t do it’.
The author added: “As soon as you engage in politics, you have an opinion and you pick a side, you cause a part of the population who disagree to take a partial view of you.
“The view of those who want to protect the monarchy was that it had to be even more elevated from politics. Anything that dragged her into the mud was an unhelpful development.”
Charles became monarch following the Queen’s death, which happened on this day three years ago.
Since then, he has continued his longstanding commitment to environmental advocacy, focusing on climate change awareness and action.
In December 2023 at the COP28 summit in Dubai, King Charles urged world leaders to adopt “genuinely transformational action” on climate change, and emphasised the need to avoid “alarming tipping points”.
Highlighting the economic risks of inaction, he also said: “Change will come by working together and making it easier to embrace decisions that will sustain our world, rather than carry on as though there are no limits – or as though our actions have no consequences.”
Earlier that year, he also participated in the activation of a ‘Climate Clock’ which brought attention to the remaining time to act on climate change.
