Leaders split on King’s role in advocating climate change action

­Anthony Albanese has declared it ‘entirely appropriate’ the new King should keep advocating for more action to tackle climate change.

Australia’s leaders are split on whether the new King should keep advocating for more action to tackle climate change, with ­Anthony Albanese declaring it “entirely appropriate”.

King Charles III, who was ­officially proclaimed Australia’s sovereign on Sunday, has long been outspoken about the threat of climate change and global inaction.

The Commonwealth’s newest monarch pleaded at COP26 last year “for countries to come ­together to create the environment that enables every sector of industry to take the action ­required”.

Britain last year enshrined new emissions targets, with the aim of cutting emissions from 1990 levels by more than 70 per cent by 2035.

In response to climate protests and youth activists such as Greta Thunberg, Charles declared in 2021 “of course they’re going to be frustrated”.

“I totally understand because nobody would listen, and they see their future being totally destroyed,” he said at the time.

Peter Dutton said such advocacy should be rolled back now that Charles was the King.

“As King, I think as the Queen conducted her business, he is there now as an impartial person,” the Opposition Leader said on the ABC.

“He now moves into a different phase of his life and as he pointed out, he’s been a very strong ­supporter of charities and different causes for most of his adult life, but he puts that to one side now, because he takes up the important role as the head of the Commonwealth.

”And as the King, he will have a responsibility to dispense his ­duties fairly as the Queen did.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton lays a wreath at the statue of Queen Elizabeth II at the Australian Parliament House. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

Mr Dutton said other members of the royal family could go on to advocate in King Charles’s stead.

“Prince William’s very strong in relation to this issue and many others,” he said.

“He’s a patron of many ­organisations as well, and as the Prince of Wales he will have a greater ability to speak out on, and to support, causes that are important to him.”

Upon becoming the sovereign, King Charles indicated that he would need to step back on some of the issues he cared about. “My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities,” he said.

“It will no longer be possible to give so much of my time and ­energies to the charities and issues for which I cared so deeply, but I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of ­others.”

However, the Prime Minister said while the King should be impartial on some issues, climate change was not one of them.

“I think dealing with the challenge of climate change shouldn’t be seen as a political issue,” Mr ­Albanese said.

“It should be seen as an issue that is about humanity, and about our very quality of life and survival as a world.

“This is a big threat and King Charles has identified that for a long period of time.

“I think engagement in issues is very different from engagement in party political matters.

“That would be entirely in­appropriate.”

It follows Australia passing its 2030 emission reduction target of 43 per cent through the parliament last week, which Labor has heralded as the “end of the climate wars”.

The Coalition has raised concerns with the target and warned about increases to power prices, while the Greens have declared they will keep fighting for more ­action and push for a climate trigger to be legislated.

As part of its emission reduction plans, Labor last month introduced biodiversity certificates to run alongside its carbon credit scheme, rewarding farmers for managing or rehabilitating land responsibly.