King Charles III the environmentalist: down the thermostat of the Buckingham Palace swimming pool (to lower energy consumption)

When in the seventies, among the first, he began to talk about global warming and the climate crisis, there were many who called the then weird future King Charles III, but he has always gone his own way, and today he continues to set an example, for British and non-British people. The last provision concerns the water temperature of the Buckingham Palace swimming pool: the sovereign ordered the lowering of the thermostat to help lower energy consumption.

“Some people using the pool have noticed that the temperature has dropped. They were told the king had the heat turned down,” an insider told the Daily Mail. Hard times, in short, for those sensitive to the cold at Court, but there are also economic reasons at stake. In 2022 the utility bill for the Royal Palaces was decidedly high, £3.2 million, amount that is also paid by taxpayers. Obviously King Charles III ran for cover, he is the first to set a good example.

Carlo, moreover, has very clear ideas on everything concerning the environment. If the British Government has set itself a deadline of 2050 to ensure that the United Kingdom becomes a zero-emissions country, the deadline for the House of Windsor would be much earlier; Carlo wants to beat everyone to the punch, and he has already started working towards it. At Clarence House, his official residence, and at Highgrove House, the much-loved country estate in Gloucestershire, there have long been solar panels on roofs, and probably the swimming pool will also undergo other changes.

According to an insider, in fact, for the king “It would not be ecologically correct, because the water contains chemicals and, in addition, must be heated”. In summary, “It doesn’t fit his training regimen or his worldview.”

The swimming pool, which is used only by senior royals, it was made by George VI in 1938 for his daughters, Elizabeth, the future queen, and her sister Margaret. It is an indoor swimming pool, where Carlo and his brothers learned to swim,. Even Lady Diana used to frequent it, alone and together with her sons William and Harry. A tradition that has also continued with Kate Middleton and with her children George, Charlotte and Louis, and which could be interrupted now that Charles has ascended the throne, unless a way is found to make it more ecological and to amortize the costs of management. When it comes to the environment, Charles III is adamant that the protection of the planet comes first.