Britain’s queen expresses irritation at world leaders who won’t commit to climate summit

“Extraordinary isn’t it. I’ve been hearing all about COP,” the queen says, according to video and audio recordings analyzed by the Daily Mirror. “Still don’t know who is coming … We only know about people who are not coming … It's really irritating when they talk, but they don't do.”

Jones then replied: “Exactly. It’s a time for doing … and watching your grandson on the television this morning saying there’s no point going to space, we need to save the Earth.”

“Yes, I read about it,” the queen said, smiling broadly.

Prince William on Thursday said that there should be more focus on fixing this planet and slammed space tourism.

Britain’s 95-year-old monarch will attend the U.N. climate change conference, also known as COP26, next month in Glasgow — along with several senior members of the British royal family.

Several world leaders have not confirmed their attendance, however, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who previously said he was unsure if he would attend because of covid-19, confirmed his attendance on Friday.

The queen’s remarks offer unusual insight into her thinking on the subject. It’s extraordinarily rare to hear anything from the queen, who has given exactly zero interviews during her long reign and is supposed to remain politically neutral.

The British prime minister meets with the queen on a weekly basis, but there is a tradition that those conversations stay private. But things do slip out, usually not intentionally. The former prime minister David Cameron was mortified when he found out there was a microphone recording his conversation about the queen’s reaction to the Scottish independence referendum.

Other country’s presidents aren’t bound by the same conventions. When President Biden met the queen at Windsor Castle in June, he relayed to reporters that the queen had asked him about China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that the queen’s comments on the COP26 conference should have stayed private. Speaking to Sky News, he said, “I think comments made in private should stay private, but we all share the desire to see progress made and we know there will be hundreds of leaders coming to Glasgow for Cop.”

“I don't think her comments were for broadcast,” he added.