King Charles has issued a dire warning on climate change, while opening a meeting of commonwealth leaders in Samoa. The monarch says warming temperatures and seas pose an ‘existential’ threat to the globe, urging leaders to move quickly to slash emissions.
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00:00A celebration fit for a king. The monarch and fellow commonwealth leaders together in
00:10Samoa united also in message about the rapidly intensifying climate threat.
00:17Lives, livelihoods and human rights are at risk across the commonwealth.
00:23It is the greatest threat to the survival and security of our pacific people.
00:31Charles has been a long time climate advocate, now on the throne only slightly less forceful.
00:39I can only offer every encouragement for action with unequivocal determination to arrest rising
00:47temperatures by cutting emissions.
00:50And as the leaders gather another reminder of the stakes. The United Nations warning
00:55there's a risk of a catastrophic three degrees of global warming by the end of this century
01:00unless more is done to slash emissions.
01:04Australia's not immune, its climate record has come under fire from the pacific. But
01:10the PM says leaders understand Australia's trying to strike a balance.
01:16They recognise that the challenge of climate change doesn't mean that you can just flick
01:21a switch and act immediately. We need to make sure the energy security is prioritised.
01:27While future threats are dominating this chogom, the commonwealth's past is also casting a
01:32shadow over the meeting. With some Caribbean and African leaders still pressing for slavery
01:38reparations. The UK's ruled that out, but commonwealth leaders look set to endorse a
01:43final statement which acknowledges the controversy and calls for a quote conversation about the
01:50best way forward.
01:51I understand from listening to people across the commonwealth how the most painful aspects
01:57of our past continue to resonate.
01:59The very fact that there are concerns that have arisen means that there must be conversations
02:05to be had.
02:06A discussion unlikely to die away.