King Charles says COP28 a 'critical turning point' in fight against climate change

King Charles said he hoped COP28 "will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action at a time when, already, as scientists have been warning for so long, we are seeing alarming tipping points being reached".

"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," he said.

"Repeated cyclones batter vulnerable island nations, like Vanuatu and Dominica. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been experiencing unprecedented floods, and East Africa is suffering a decades-long drought," the king said.

"This past summer, in common with Spain, Greece, the United States and many other countries, Canada experienced its most severe wildfire season on record, with eighteen-and-a-half million hectares of land burned, causing terrible loss of life and property and, of course, releasing enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses that contribute to dangerous 'feedback loops', to which climate scientists have been alerting us for decades," he noted.

"We need to pause to process what this actually means: we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits, and into dangerous, uncharted territory," the king said.

"As I have tried to say on many occasions, unless we rapidly repair and restore Nature's unique economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled," he said.