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King Charles has made an impassioned plea for countries to work together to tackle the climate issues facing the world.

His Majesty delivered a keynote speech at the opening session of COP28 in Dubai and he had a striking message for his audience, telling them ”The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”

The King touched on a wide range of issues in his speech which received an ovation.

King Charles urged everyone to play a part, saying ”in your hands is an unmissable opportunity to keep our common hope alive. I can only urge you to meet it with ambition, imagination, and a true sense of the emergency we face, and together with a commitment to the practical action upon which our shared future depends.”

As politicians, agencies and NGOs from around the world gathered, they heard The King prioritise five areas he felt needed urgent attention – strengthening multilateral organisations, ensuring finance for developments needed for a sustainable future, accelerating the development of clean technology and renewable energy, bringing together solutions to form a long term, multi national approach and creating a shared, ambitious view for the next 100 years.

King Charles has talked before about protecting the environment for future generations and he told COP28 that ”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.”

The King concluded ”if we act together to safeguard our precious planet, the welfare of all our people will surely follow. We need to remember that the indigenous world view teaches us that we are all connected. Not only as human beings, but with all living things and all that sustains life.”

COP28 will continue over the coming days.