When it comes to climate change, the acts of the queen spoke louder than her words

20 September, 2022

The Queen was a natural leader who was very passionate about protecting the environment, even though other members of her family received greater public recognition for their environmental activism.

The Queen may have been quieter on the subject of climate change than other members of her family, but her actions certainly did not lack for clarity. According to royal historian Kate Williams, the Queen has left a modest footprint on Earth compared to other leaders in her position. She said that her grandmother’s frugality stemmed from her background as a child of the war.

Having access to extensive agricultural and hunting lands undoubtedly made it simpler for Her Majesty to consume a basic diet consisting of local vegetables and meat with few food miles. She grew honey at Buckingham Palace and spent her vacations at her Balmoral estate in Scotland; she also reused wrapping paper, preserved furniture for decades and wore the same clothes over and again.

According to Professor Williams, “She wasn’t expressly stating, ‘look at me, I’m so eco.'” The Queen, though, was “very much the way people lived in the 1940s and 1950s,” when rationing was commonplace.

While other members of her family have received more attention for their environmental activism — Prince Philip served as president of the World Wildlife Fund, Prince Charles advocated for organic farming, and Prince William established the environmental Earthshot prize — the Queen herself has dozens of patronages and connections with environmental organisations, ranging from African Parks to Botanic Gardens.

In a 2018 TV special with Sir David Attenborough, she showed off her appreciation for nature by gazing up at the even-older trees in the Buckingham Palace grounds.

Beyond that, she enjoys gardening, spending time with animals (especially corgis and horses), and cooking.

Causing a chain reaction, like a domino

Williams pointed out that “it’s extremely difficult for the Royal Family to [talk] about environmental concerns because of the natural carbon footprint of being a royal,” which includes things like the massive palaces they live in and the frequent travel they do for official engagements.

However, the most significant influence the Queen had was likely the ripple effect of her acts on the general populace.

According to Lyst’s 2020 Conscious Fashion study, interest in fake fur goods increased by 52% when it was reported in 2019 that the Queen had ceased wearing fur.

In honour of her Platinum Jubilee, the Queen asked citizens to participate in the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative by planting trees in their communities.

As the formal planting season for the Queen’s Green Canopy approaches, Queen Elizabeth II has a meeting with students.

Pictured here is Queen Elizabeth II chatting with schoolkids before the commencement of the official planting season for the Queen’s Green Canopy.

The Queen is ‘irritated’ that international leaders are just talking and not taking action. The Queen got increasingly vocal as she aged.

Prof. Williams hypothesised that the reason for her forthrightness was because she was aware of the significance of her words. The Queen slammed global leaders for their lack of action on climate change before to the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, United Kingdom, in November 2021. She was overheard saying, “Extraordinary, isn’t it?” in a private webcast. All I hear about is COP… Don’t know who’s going to show up yet. Just don’t know it. It’s just the folks who aren’t showing up that we know about. She was overheard stating, “It’s incredibly annoying when people speak, but they don’t do.”

Her formal presentation to the climate negotiations mirrored such criticisms, even though they were not meant for public circulation. The “time for words has now passed to the moment for action,” she declared in an unusually intimate video message.

After being encouraged to rest, the Queen “regretfully” chose to pre-record her presentation for the Glasgow climate conference.

However, environmental activist Joel Scott-Halkes claims that returning the roughly 850,000 acres of Crown property to its natural state would be the “single largest thing” the Royal Family could do for the environment.

Rewilding is the process of restoring an ecosystem to the point where it can sustain itself after being damaged.

The Queen possessed huge swaths of land, some of which she enjoyed by virtue of her position as monarch (such as the Duchy of Lancaster) and others of which she owned personally (such as the 50,000 acres of Balmoral and the 20,000 at Sandringham) despite having no such official title.

Duchy of Lancaster is a “ecological wasteland…dominated by grouse moors that they set fire to enhance the sporting delight of a few paying aristocracy,” as Mr. Scott-Halkes put it.

In order to avert ecosystem collapse and climatic breakdown, the United Nations recommends that the globe re-wild and restore an area the size of China.

Campaigner Guy Shrubsole found that the Royal Family together owned 1.4% of England’s land, an area twice the size of Greater London.

Scott-Halkes, who organised a petition to the Royal Family, said that re-wilding Crown property would send “an incredible indication to all other landowners in the nation, especially aristocratic landowners who look to the Royals for kind of aesthetic guidance on what to do with their estate.”

Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee by planting a tree at the Diamond Jubilee Wood on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. Picture taken in 2012 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee shows her planting a tree on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

As the heir apparent, Prince William is expected to take over control of the Duchy of Cornwall, which consists of some 130,000 acres of Crown property, from his father.

After seeing the 3,500-acre Knepp Estate in West Sussex, a model for the re-wilding movement, Prince Charles became “far more vociferous about the need for restoration,” according to Mr. Scott-Halkes.

According to the Wild Card campaign, just around 6% of the Duchy of Cornwall’s 130,000 acres of land are forested at the present time, which is less than half the national average of 10-13% and much less than the EU average of 39%.

Mr. Scott-Halkes further, saying, “Prince William will have to spell forth his vision for how he administers all of that property.”

When shooting grouse on moors became popular in the 1850s, it was due to the efforts of Queen Victoria and Prince Philip.

Mr. Shrubsole posed the question, “Could we imagine a period when the monarch sets the pattern for re-wilding?”

In response to the petition in 2021, Buckingham Palace said that the royal family has a “proud tradition” of advocating for conservation for more than 50 years and is “constantly searching for new methods to better” this effort.

A representative from Royal Estates stated the royal family has a long and illustrious history of conservation efforts dating back more than 50 years, and that they are always open to new ideas.

Additional Difficulties

As Professor Williams points out, “dealing with the private jet” is another major obstacle facing the next generation of the monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II became monarch in 1952, long before environmental awareness was a thing. “The type of diplomacy she’s done has been very much desire to be being present and there,” the historian said.

In other words, “I don’t want to go on a plane” was an unacceptable response from her.

However, “the Royal Family do need to think about their carbon footprint” as the globe attempts to reduce its dangerously high level of climate heating pollution.

Prof. Williams recommended a number of measures, including improving the palaces’ energy efficiency and replacing private aircraft with first-class flights and helicopters with vehicles for domestic transport.

Things that used to be the Queen’s worries about saving money have become problems of worldwide relevance throughout the course of her seven-decade reign.

Professor Williams said that the environmental changes since her rule would have been the most noticeable to her.