Queen to give royal approval to fight global warming

By GEOFFREY LEAN


The Queen, in an unprecedented initiative, will this week throw her weight behind international attempts to combat global warming.

During her state visit to Germany she will, for the first time, publicly signal her concern about the possibility of a catastrophic heating of the planet by opening a meeting in Berlin that is planning the next steps in the worldwide effort to head it off.

This will bring into the open a largely unnoticed greening of the monarch, which has already produced some measures to make Buckingham Palace more environmentally friendly.

Senior Buckingham Palace sources said yesterday that they could not remember a previous occasion when the Queen had opened a conference on such a sensitive international issue on a state visit.

She is augmenting a strong family tradition. Prince Philip was one of the world's earliest green campaigners, and has long been one of the one of the most influential figures in the green movement, helping to found the World Wildlife Fund more than 40 years ago, and then serving as its international president.

Top government officials say that, in private, the Queen has been increasingly struck by the mounting scientific evidence that the world is heating up. She has quietly been putting her concerns into practice in Buckingham Palace over the past few years.

Skylights have been double-glazed following a comprehensive audit to see how the giant building could cut down on energy waste. More radically, two combined heat and power plants - which greatly increase energy efficiency by producing both electricity and hot water for heating - have been installed. Water-saving "hippo" plastic containers have been placed in the tanks of the royal lavatories, paper and glass are recycled, and the Queen's most used Bentley car runs on LPG.

Wednesday's conference - an invitation-only meeting of ministers, industrialists, top scientists and officials from Britain and Germany - could prove to be one of the most important ever held in the urgent battle to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change.

Chaired by Klaus Topfer, Germany's former environment minister who now runs the United Nations Environment Programme, it comes at a particularly crucial time.

This month, after years of wrangling, it became clear that the Kyoto Protocol will finally come into effect - despite President Bush's vigorous efforts to kill it - when Russia resolved to ratify it.

But the treaty has always been seen as only a small first step. Tony Blair, who will address the conference by video, has made working out the next international measures a top priority for his presidency of both the EU and the G8 group of the world's most powerful countries next year, and wants Wednesday's meeting to come up with concrete proposals.

To underline her concern, the Queen will also accompany German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder to a parallel session of young people to hear their concerns about increased flooding due to climate change.

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