Australian PM supports Charles continuing climate advocacy

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, second left, walks in central Sydney after a press briefing, Wednesday

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said King Charles III continuing to advocate for climate change action in his new apolitical role as monarch would be “perfectly acceptable.”

Albanese was speaking ahead of an Australian delegation’s scheduled departure from Sydney yesterday for Queen Elizabeth II ‘s funeral.

Albanese said the new king would decide whether he continued to advocate for reduced greenhouse gas emissions as he had done for years as a prince.

“It’s important that the monarchy distance from party political issues. But there are issues like climate change where I think if he chooses to continue to make statements in that area, I think that is perfectly acceptable,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“It should be something that’s above politics, the need to act on climate change,” Albanese added.

In his first speech as king last week, Charles suggested he would be more circumspect as monarch and step back from his advocacy on a range of issues.

The lifelong environmentalist said he was confident work on “the issues for which I care so deeply” would “go on in the trusted hands of others.”

Albanese’s new center-left Labor Party government has enshrined in law a target to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 42% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

Under the previous conservative government, Australia had been branded a laggard on climate action over its target to reduce emissions by only 26% to 28% by 2030.

Australia said it was helping officials from Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Samoa and a fifth unnamed British Commonwealth nation in the Oceania region travel to London for the funeral on Monday.

But those officials are not flying on the same Royal Australian Air Force plane as Albanese, his partner Jodie Haydon, Governor-General David Hurley and his wife Linda Hurley. They are accompanied by nine so-called “everyday Australians,” including wheelchair tennis star Dylan Alcott, who have been invited by Buckingham Palace.  ROD McGUIRK, CANBERRA, MDT/AP