![The King speaks with Rishi Sunak as they attend the opening ceremony of the World Climate Action Summit at Cop28 in Dubai](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/royal-family/2023/12/01/TELEMMGLPICT000358523218_17014296669250_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
King warns Cop28 that we are ‘becoming immune’ to broken climate records
His Majesty’s speech at the global summit in Dubai is the first time he has delivered the opening address as monarch
![The King speaks with Rishi Sunak as they attend the opening ceremony of the World Climate Action Summit at Cop28 in Dubai](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/royal-family/2023/12/01/TELEMMGLPICT000358523218_17014296669250_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
The King has warned world leaders that we are “becoming immune” to broken climate records.
His Majesty told those gathered at Cop28 in Dubai on Friday that we need to “pause to process” the extent of the changes seen in our natural environment.
The King, 75, said: “Records are now being broken so often that we are perhaps becoming immune to what they are really telling us.
“When we see the news that this last Northern Hemisphere Summer, for instance, was the warmest global average temperature on record, we need to pause to process what this means: we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits, and into dangerous, uncharted territory.”
His speech at the global climate summit, being held in the UAE over two weeks, marked the first time he has delivered the opening address at the conference as King.
![The King made the opening address at Cop28 in Dubai](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/royal-family/2023/12/01/TELEMMGLPICT000358524422_17014300576230_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqAVgApPuFV4H4Sbweyz6Z3wv0G8WqZ_NM-4wmiKY4UVg.jpeg?imwidth=350)
The King previously opened Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021 and Cop21 in Paris in 2015, however his attendance at last year’s summit was derailed after Liz Truss stopped him from going during her short tenure as prime minister.
His Majesty, who has been a lifelong green campaigner, used his opening remarks in Dubai’s summit to ask those gathered: “How dangerous are we actually prepared to make our world?”
“We are carrying out a vast, frightening experiment of changing every ecological condition, all at once,” he warned, adding that we are doing so at a pace that “far outstrips nature’s ability to cope”.
The monarch urged world leaders to unify in the face of climate change, saying: “Dealing with this is a job for us all.
“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.”
He warned: “As you gather for these critical negotiations, the hope of the world rests on the decisions you must take.”
The King’ attendance at this year’s conference was at the invitation of the host nation and at the request of the UK government, with Rishi Sunak and Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, also present at the event.
He was said to have been disappointed that he was not able to attend Cop27 when Ms Truss warned him against attending as monarch after the death of Elizabeth II.
Royal aides indicated when he ascended the throne that he would continue to champion the environment, a passion he has pursued for more than five decades.
In his opening remarks on Friday, he acknowledged his personal ties with the cause, saying: “I have spent a large proportion of my life trying to warn of the existential threats facing us over global warming, climate change and biodiversity loss.”
However, he added that during this time, and despite all the attention, that greenhouse gases have only increased and that we remain “dreadfully off track”.
He said that the dangers posed by climate change “are no longer distant risks”, with visible effects being seen across the Commonwealth and beyond as countless communities become “unable to withstand repeated shocks”.
“Lives and livelihoods are laid waste by climate change,” His Majesty warned, citing aggressive cyclones in Vanuatu and Dominica, unprecedented floods in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as a decades-long drought in East Africa.
The King also turned to worsening extreme weather conditions across Europe, the US and Canada, using the severe wildlife seasons as examples of “dangerous feedback loops” of greenhouse gases.
“As I have tried to say on many occasions, unless we rapidly repair and restore nature’s economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled,” he said.
‘An ambitious new vision’
His Majesty also used his speech to outline five key questions which he hopes Cop28 will address, helping to find solutions that will accelerate progress.
Among those questions he outlined was how we can force an “ambitious new vision for the next one hundred years” to ensure a future that is in harmony with the natural world.
“In 2050 our grandchildren won’t be asking what we said, they will be living with the consequences of what we did or didn’t do,” he said.
In his concluding remarks, the King added: “We need to remember that the indigenous worldview teaches us that we are all connected. Not only as human beings, but with all living things and all that sustains life.
“As part of this grand and sacred system, harmony with nature must be maintained. The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”
Ahead of his speech, the monarch was said to be “utterly focused” on his official duties during his 48-hour trip to Dubai, despite the ongoing furore in the UK over the naming of two members of the Royal family caught up in a racism row with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.