Constitution stops Charles becoming Britain's 'green' king

LONDON (AP) — On a blustery November day last year Britain's future king stood before world leaders to deliver a rallying cry that they should "act with all despatch, and decisively” to confront a common enemy.

The clarion call — in the vast, windowless hall of a Glasgow convention center at the opening of the U.N. climate conference — concerned an issue long dear to the heart of the then-Prince Charles.

Climate change and loss of biodiversity were no different from the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, he said. “In fact, they pose an even greater existential threat, to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing.”

He warned leaders that time was running out to reduce emissions, urging them to push through reforms that are “radically transforming our current fossil fuel-based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable.”

“We need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector," he said, adding that the trillions at businesses' disposal would go far beyond what governments could muster and offered "the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.”

It was a fierce call to arms quite unlike the gentle appeal delivered by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in a video message that evening.

For decades, Charles has been one of Britain's most prominent environmental voices, blasting the ills of pollution. Now that he’s monarch, he is bound to be more careful with his words and must stay out of politics and government policy in accordance with the traditions of Britain’s constitutional monarchy.

“Charles will have very little freedom of maneuver now that he is King," said Robert Hazell, an expert on British constitutional affairs at University College London.

“All...