The Prince of Wales will attend the COP30 climate summit in Brazil next month on behalf of the King, Kensington Palace has announced.
Prince William and King Charles appeared together on Thursday evening at a reception ahead of the environmental conference, which is to be held in the northern Brazilian city of Belem.
Father and son were at the Natural History Museum reception, in an unusual joint appearance, at a pre-COP30 gathering co-hosted by the UK government.
The King has been a longstanding advocate of protecting nature – and Prince William has taken on the baton, with his own Earthshot awards, which will be held in Brazil ahead of the COP summit.
The King and Prince of Wales, standing side by side at the museum, were introduced to guests including environmentalists and climate change campaigners.
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, greeted Prince William when he arrived at the museum. And former PM Theresa May spoke to the King about COP summits.
Royal sources have described Prince William as stepping up to play an important role in “climate diplomacy”.
This included speaking alongside President Emmanuel Macron of France and other world leaders at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco earlier this year.
The COP30 summit will dovetail with the prince’s own Earthshot environmental awards, which will finish in Rio de Janeiro the day before he attends the COP summit on 6 November.
Last week the prince described the Earthshot finalists as “heroes of our time”.
King Charles has been a key figure at previous climate summits, giving the opening address in Dubai for COP28, including the reminder: “The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”
“I have spent a large proportion of my life trying to warn of the existential threats facing us over global warming, climate change and biodiversity loss,” the King told delegates.