Is This Really How Prince Philip Would Have Felt About The Queen's COP26 Speech?
Despite being advised to rest for two weeks following an overnight hospital stay and several canceled engagements, Queen Elizabeth II was still a presence at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, where world leaders are trying to address the global climate crisis.
Although she was supposed to appear at the two-week-long conference and give a speech in person, she canceled the trip due to doctor's orders. While her son, Prince Charles, and grandson Prince William are in attendance, with climate change action being one of their passion projects (via the BBC), the Queen delivered a virtual speech from Windsor Castle, where she has been resting.
In the speech, she praised Charles and William for their work on climate change initiatives and also urged world leaders to act now. "It is the hope of many that the legacy of this summit — written in history books yet to be printed — will describe you as the leaders who did not pass up the opportunity; and that you answered the call of those future generations," she said (via Reuters).
The Queen also paid homage to her late husband, Prince Philip, who passed away in April 2021 at the age of 99.
The Queen remembered Prince Philip in her speech to COP26
In her virtual speech, Queen Elizabeth not only praised her son and grandson for their work on climate change but also reminded leaders that this topic was of great concern to Prince Philip, as well.
"I am delighted to welcome you all to the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference," the Queen said (via the Daily Mail). "This is a duty I am especially happy to discharge, as the impact of the environment on human progress was a subject close to the heart of my dear late husband, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh."
The Queen even recalled 1969, when Philip warned that climate change action was critical. "I remember well that in 1969, he told an academic gathering: 'If the world pollution situation is not critical at the moment, it is as certain as anything can be, that the situation will become increasingly intolerable within a very short time ... If we fail to cope with this challenge, all the other problems will pale into insignificance.'"
A royal expert reacted to the Queen's COP26 speech
Royal biographer Robert Jobson told FEMAIL, the women's lifestyle section of the Daily Mail, that Prince Philip might have been embarrassed by the Queen's speech, as he was a man who didn't usually show his feelings publicly, even on such consequential global subjects that were close to his heart.
"I thought it was a wonderful, deeply personal touch," Jobson said. "A tribute to a man of vision, that Prince Philip was. He would have been embarrassed. But it shows how rightly proud she was of him."
However, the Queen was not wrong in painting her husband as an environmentalist, just like Charles and William. "He was a great champion for nature and the environment," Jobson continued. "A farsighted man who did so much to help preserve endangered species on this planet through his creation of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature of which he was a driving force in creating."