King Charles Won't Attend COP29 Climate Meeting in Azerbaijan After Royal Tour — Inside Why

Mar. 15, 2025

King Charles at the 25th anniversary of Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland on Sept. 28, 2024.Photo:Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

King Charles' fall calendar is taking shape, and it won’t include an appearance at the COP29 climate meeting in Azerbaijan next month.

It emerged on Oct. 9 that the King, 75, will not attend the upcoming 29th U.N. Climate Change Conference, abbreviated as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, which runs from Nov. 11 to Nov. 22. While the King, a lifelong advocate for the environment, haspreviously attendedthe event in recent years, he will not appear there this year on the advice of government ministers.

Buckingham Palace had no comment.

According to theMirror, government officials felt “an abundance of caution” was necessary in light of the sovereign’s schedule. COP29 begins a few weeks after the King wraps his long-distance royal tour of Australia and Samoa withQueen Camilla. It’s significant as it marks their first tour of Commonwealth countries since his accession and is their furthest working trip from home following the palace announcing in February that the King wasdiagnosed with cancerand began treatment.

King Charles and Queen Camilla in Guernsey, France on July 16, 2024.Chris Jackson/Getty

Chris Jackson/Getty

Over the weekend, theDaily Mailreported that King’s medical team is allowing him to briefly cease what is thought to be weekly treatment for cancer when he is in Australia and Samoa. Looking ahead to COP29, it would be a five-hour flight from London to Baku, and all attendances at COP29 are on the advice of government ministers.

The Court Circular said that King Charles welcomed the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties Presidencies Troika, including Mukhtar Babayev, the COP29 President-Designate, to Clarence House in July.

Mukhtar Babayev, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, King Charles and Ana Toni at Clarence House in London on July 26, 2024.Yui Mok- WPA Pool/Getty

Yui Mok- WPA Pool/Getty

While the monarch will not be at the meeting in person, he might follow along from afar. The King made a passionate speech at the COP28 talks in Dubai in December 2023, calling for change for the sake of the next generation.

“n 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,” King Charles, agrandfather of five, said at the opening of the climate conference last year.

King Charles speaks at the opening ceremony of the World Climate Action Summit during COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Dec. 1, 2023.Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

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He further urged the climate talks as “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.”

source: people.com