London, United Kingdom:
Queen Elizabeth II has taken aim at world leaders who “talk” but “don’t do” adequate about climate adjust, in an apparent jibe at these not attending the upcoming COP26 summit.
The 95-year-old monarch was overheard creating the remarks on a microphone as she opened the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff on Thursday.
She told Elin Jones, the parliament’s presiding officer: “Extraordinary isn’t it. I’ve been hearing all about COP… still don’t know who is coming. No idea.
“We only know about individuals who are not coming … It’s truly irritating when they speak, but they never do.”
All eyes are on the two-week UN climate summit in Glasgow, which starts on October 31, and whether Xi Jinping, leader of the world’s biggest emitter, China, will attend.
It is also unclear if Narendra Modi, prime minister of the world’s third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, India, will be at the conference either.
The queen’s comments come after public interventions this week from both her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, and her grandson, Prince William.
Long-time environmentalist Charles told the BBC in an interview broadcast Monday he worried world leaders would “just speak”, rather than implement “action on the ground”.
William, in a separate interview with the broadcaster aired on Thursday, called for more than “clever speak” — and blasted space tourism.
“We need to have some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on attempting to repair this planet, not attempting to discover the next location to go and live,” he added.
Welsh politician Jones told the Queen that she had seen William on the television “saying there is no point going to space, we need to have to save the Earth”.
The queen smiled and replied: “Yes, I study about it.”
She, Charles, William and other senior royals are all due to attend events at the upcoming summit.
The gathering will attempt to persuade important building economies to do more to reduce their carbon emissions, and get the wealthy world to cough up billions more to assist poorer nations adapt to climate adjust.
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