Queen Elizabeth II to attend UN climate change conference, marking closer embrace of cause

Queen Elizabeth II will attend the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland in November, organizers said Friday, marking a rare public association of the monarch with a disputed global policy issue.

According to the royal website, the queen will attend a reception at the conference, which was originally scheduled for last year but was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 100 world leaders, climate campaigners and activists from around the world, including President Joe Biden, are expected to gather for conference, hosted by the United Kingdom.

As per usual, further details about the queen's engagement, including the date, won't be released until closer to the date, according to Buckingham Palace. The conference is set to take place in Glasgow Oct. 31 - Nov. 12.

But the organizers were over the moon, according to their social media posts.

Alok Sharma, president of the COP26 conference, said on Twitter he is "absolutely delighted" the queen will be at the event.

The official Twitter account for the conference also tweeted the news.

The British royals in general have long considered themselves environmentalists but it's the queen's son and heir, Prince Charles, who is best known as the royal climate-change campaigner: He's been a leading voice for decades warning about the damaging effects on the planet.

It's not clear whether the Prince of Wales, who turns 73 in November, will also attend the conference.

The queen, 95, and approaching her 70th year on the throne next summer, has cut back on her public engagements recently due to the pandemic and the April death of her husband of 72 years, Prince Philip.

But she is still carrying on, having hosted a reception for the Group of Seven Summit hosted by the United Kingdom in Cornwall in June.

The queen has not been as identified with the climate change cause as her son, although the topic came up at Commonwealth summits she regularly attended in the past.

In July, she visited the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute as part of her annual tour of Scotland, and spoke with experts from Climate XChange, which provides independent advice and analysis to the Scottish government. The Scotsman and The Telegraph reported she was heard commenting about the impact of tackling climate change.

"It does mean we are going to have to change the way we do things really, in the end," she told experts.

But she has rarely said much about climate change in public. As sovereign, she is supposed to remain above politics and climate change has morphed into a contentious political issue, especially in the United States.

Not so much in the U.K.: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is the official host of the conference. He hopes to secure emissions-cutting commitments to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial times.

Countries agreed that goal at a 2015 conference in Paris, but a U.N. report this month said the world is on course to break the 1.5C threshold within a decade.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Queen Elizabeth II to attend UN climate change conference