Whether he holds his kingly tongue or not, Charles III will still have a climate impact

In a new prime minister, Liz Truss, the new monarch faces a fan of fossil fuels.

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On Monday, King Charles III met with Alison Johnstone, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Photo: UK Government.

I have three, very tenuous, connections to Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III. The first is that I shared a piano teacher, Miss Lily Snipp, with his former wife, Princess Diana. Why? The latter, at a later date, went to a boarding school in my home town; her school also shared athletics facilities with mine. Second is that the husband of Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, was in my class in high school. It was a small place, so there is a chance that Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, KCVO, CB, ADV (whatever those mean), would remember me.

And the third is that King Charles, has had a longtime concern about global warming — he made his first speech on the subject as a 21-year-old in 1970 — while I write about it.

But now Charles is king, and as such is expected to keep his views to himself. Will his advocacy, the effects of which are quite considerable in the U.K., diminish?