Prince
Charles may raise climate change during Trump's visit to Britain
Some
in Whitehall are urging the prince to challenge US president’s
pledge to abandon 2015 UN climate change deal
Robert Booth
Sunday 29 January
2017 13.18 GMT
Donald Trump’s
state visit to Britain this year was never likely to fit the mould of
previous trips undertaken by his predecessors, from Ronald Reagan to
Barack Obama. The US president’s rumoured wish to play nine holes
on the Queen’s private golf course at Balmoral and the question of
how he might explain his 2012 tweet defending the sale of topless
pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge made sure of that.
But the tour is now
looking even more likely to generate controversy as Prince Charles
emerged as a possible challenger to the president’s views on
climate change and faith issues.
The Guardian
understands from royal sources that the prince will not lecture Trump
in relation to their starkly divergent views of what needs to be done
to tackle global warming but has not ruled out addressing the topic.
This poses a challenge not just for the president, who has threatened
to “cancel” the United Nations climate change deal signed in
Paris in 2015 and who has described climate change as “created by
and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing
non-competitive”. It is also a conundrum for the British government
scrambling to work out how to address Trump’s radical programme and
how to make use of a sometimes controversial advocate for climate
action.
Charles is being
urged by some in Whitehall to use his decades-long experience in
environmentalism to challenge Trump’s pledge to abandon the deal,
as part of “harmonised” efforts with the UK government to keep
the carbon-cutting treaty on track.
But other UK
officials are reported to be concerned that the likely meeting
between the men has become a “risk factor” for the visit. Another
potentially controversial issue that could arise is religion Prince
Charles’s history of trying to promote better interfaith relations
contrast with Trump’s actions to block travellers from
Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
An anonymous source,
described as being close to Trump, said this weekend that the
president would not put up with being lectured by the prince,
according to the Sunday Times. The source warned against the two men
meeting at all.
That appears
unlikely. Under the normal choreography of a state visit, Charles is
likely to have several opportunities to spend time with Trump.
Although details of the visit have yet to be finalised, the Prince of
Wales would typically welcome Trump where he is staying, possibly the
US ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park, central London. They
would then travel together to Horse Guards Parade from where there is
normally a formal procession down the Mall to Buckingham Palace for
the leader to be greeted by the Queen. That would be followed by a
lunch, attended again by Charles.
A state dinner
provides another opportunity for interaction and Charles also invites
most leaders to afternoon tea at Clarence House. Whether this will
happen with Trump is yet to be decided, and is said to depend on how
much time is available. Barack Obama did not take tea on his last
state visit, but China’s president, Xi Jinping, did.
In parts of
Whitehall Charles is now considered to be “an extremely good asset”
in helping to maintain the integrity of the UN climate change treaty.
He has been “gently primed” to assist diplomatic efforts on the
issue, a senior Whitehall source said and there is “a sympathetic
hearing” between Clarence House and the government on climate
change, with Charles’s views considered “absolutely in line with
government policy”.
“It has taken a
lot of work by some of us to get him into that place, but what he is
doing now is extremely helpful to us,” the source said.
Last week, while
Trump issued executive orders to revive oil pipeline projects and
told carmakers that environmental regulation was “out of control”,
Charles stepped up his own warnings on the environment. In a foreword
to a Ladybird book on climate change published on Thursday and
co-written by the prince, he described climate change as “the wolf
at the door” and said action “must be urgently scaled up and
scaled up now”.
One royal aide said
Charles “would find a meeting [with Trump] on this subject [climate
change] extremely useful” but also made clear that while the agenda
might or might not include climate change, the mode of delivery would
not be confrontational or hectoring.
“If anything, he
is a helpful and honest broker on so many issues,” said one source.
The source explained that Charles is usually in listening mode for
the first 30 minutes of meetings with heads of state and only towards
the end would consider offering thoughts about how problems that had
been raised might be addressed.
Another source close
to the prince said it would be difficult for him to be very direct
with Trump. “He has to retain political neutrality, which is why he
is always walking something of a tightrope on this subject,” the
source said.
However, the same
source added: “It is fair to say he considers the world to be in
great peril because of climate change, system degradation and
resource depletion and he feels it is necessary for him to use his
position to say something about that.”
Some in Whitehall
hope that far from causing Trump to “erupt”, as one anonymous US
source suggested at the weekend, the US president may in fact be more
engaged by Charles expressing views about the need for urgent action
on climate change than a politician, in part because of Trump’s
admiration of wealth and British royalty.
Trump reportedly
told Theresa May in November that his Scottish mother, Mary MacLeod,
was “a big fan of the Queen”.
“Trump is the sort
of person who loves the panoply surrounding wealth and royalty,”
said a senior government source. “He loves reflecting the glory of
the royal family. He is pressing for a state visit so he can go and
have a meal in Buckingham Palace and he wants to play golf on the
Queen’s golf course.”
Environmental
campaigners have also backed Charles’s ability to influence the new
US president, in part by rallying other countries including Brazil,
China and India to stand by the deal, thereby putting indirect
pressure on Trump.
“He has an
international outreach and he is respected in the US,” said Nick
Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group, an alliance of
businesses, politicians and campaign groups pushing for a sustainable
economy. “He has the benefit of being a step removed from everyday
politics and I think that is important. It allows him to have more
authority and to be a more engaging figure.”
Charles told the
2015 UN climate change conference in Paris: “The moment has arrived
to take those long-awaited steps towards rescuing our planet and our
fellow man from impending catastrophe.” He has also previously
acknowledged the importance of US policy on climate change. In a 2015
speech he told an audience in Washington DC: “America’s impact is
profound and it is my, and many others’, fervent hope that you will
continue to inspire others both at home and on the global stage.”
In recent years,
Charles has focused his campaigning and convening efforts on the
fight against climate change. He runs his own international
sustainability unit from Clarence House, which describes itself as a
trusted forum for “key actors from governments, the private sector
and civil society”.
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