Queen 'irritated’ by lack of action on climate crisis - what she said

The Queen has appeared to suggest she is “irritated” by the lack of action in tackling the climate crisis ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow. The monarch was filmed on a phone camera speaking after opening the Senedd in Cardiff. In the two video clips, she is seen talking with the Duchess of Cornwall and Elin Jones, the parliament’s presiding officer, and can be heard saying she does not know who is attending the COP26 conference. In the clip she said: I’ve been hearing all about Cop…I still don’t know who’s coming. In a separate clip, the Queen appears to say it is “irritating” when “they talk, but they don’t do”. The 95-year-old monarch is set to attend a diplomatic reception at the summit, with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The comments arrive as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed he would be attending the conference. China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin have not confirmed their attendance. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the Queen’s remarks. In July, The Guardian revealed that the Queen’s lawyers secretly lobbied Scottish ministers to change a draft law to exempt her private land from a carbon emissions cutting initiative. Documents seen by the newspaper revealed the Queen, one of the largest landowners in Scotland, is the only person in the country not required to facilitate the construction of pipelines to heat buildings using renewable energy. Prince William earlier this week warned the COP26 summit against “clever speak, clever words but not enough action”. He said: “I think for Cop to communicate very clearly and very honestly what the problems are and what the solutions are going to be, is critical. “We can’t have more clever speak, clever words but not enough action.” In an interview with the BBC, William also criticised the space race, saying the world’s greatest minds need to focus on trying to fix their own planet instead. His comments were aired the day after Star Trek’s William Shatner made history by becoming the oldest person in space. The 90-year-old actor, known for his role as Captain James T Kirk, lifted off from the Texas desert on Wednesday in a rocket built by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space travel company Blue Origin.