Charles and William hailed as ‘dedicated champions of the natural world’

The King and the Prince of Wales were called “two of the most dedicated champions of the natural world” as they stepped out together for a rare joint environmental engagement.

Charles and his son William arrived at the Natural History Museum together in the state Bentley for an event to shine a spotlight on environmental challenges ahead of the Cop30 global climate change summit in Brazil next month.

The pair were all smiles as they were seen chatting to each other as they walked up the stone steps, with the King leading the way at first before they walked side by side, amid intense flash photography from awaiting cameras.

William is travelling to the South American country for his Earthshot Prize awards in Rio next month, but will stay on to join world leaders at the UN conference in Belem in the Amazon.

Kensington Palace confirmed the prince is to attend the summit on behalf of his father, and give a speech, with the announcement seen as a major development of the heir to the throne’s responsibilities on the world stage.

The King, 76, who is still being treated for cancer, previously led at the event in person on the royal front.

It will be the first time William has travelled internationally for a Cop summit, having previously attended Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, as did Charles.

On Thursday, at the “Fixing Our Broken Planet” exhibition in the museum they were greeted by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

Mr Miliband told William how grateful he was that he had come because of “how important this is”.

They also met former prime minister Baroness Theresa May while viewing a photography exhibition by the Woodland Trust, and meeting business and finance leaders to hear how they are supporting projects to protect forest and woodlands in the UK and around the world.

The event was hosted by the museum and the UK Government.

It brought together global climate ambassadors from the private sector, scientific research and environmental charities including a delegation from Brazil.

The Natural History Museum’s director, Dr Doug Gurr, said it was an “honour” that “two of the most dedicated champions of the natural world” had attended the event.

The two men then split to view displays in the Hintze Hall highlighting innovative solutions to some of the world’s climate and nature challenges.

Charles spoke to Marisa Drew, chief sustainability officer at Standard Bank, and was touched to hear he had taken her on a private tour of Highgrove a decade ago.

He then chatted with schoolchildren from Harris Academy in Chobham, Surrey, about the work they have done transforming their school into a nature paradise with a pond and new eco-systems.

As Maria Jarquin, of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, showed William artificial intelligence technology used to monitor wildlife in forests, he could be saying “fantastic, it’s really clever”.

The prince added: “I hope AI is going to provide a lot of support to conservation work.”

William was also shown samples of mosses collected in the Amazon in the 1850s.

On another table, Nicholas Mazzei, vice president of sustainability at DP World, told William that they were at Sandhurst together and joked about the prince’s platoon winning the sovereign banner, while his came second.

The prince was then shown jars containing deep sea coral, sea cucumbers and sea sponges – and he picked a few of them up to examine them.

Dr Adrian Glover, a merit researcher at the museum – who explained what each jar contained, said: “He was interested in life in the deep sea and the constraints on life in these regions, what the impacts might be.

“He was also quite interested in, politically how it would be that we control new industries such as deep sea mining in a regulated way, how we deal with that in an international framework.”

The King and the prince were last pictured at the same London museum together in 2019 but with the Duke of Sussex, when the trio – whose relationship is now troubled – joined Sir David Attenborough for the premiere of the broadcaster’s Our Planet series.

William last week set out his own approach about his future role as king, saying “change is on my agenda – change for good” in an interview with Eugene Levy for Apple TV+ series The Reluctant Traveller.

He said he wanted to “question things more” and referred to being Prince of Wales and king as a “job” and said he takes his “roles” and “responsibilities” seriously but it was important “you don’t feel they own you – you have to own them”.

William earlier this year gave a speech at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco, calling for urgent collective action to combat rising sea temperatures, plastic pollution, and overfishing.