King Charles III’s stroke of environmental genius

L’sustainable commitment Of King Charles has always been one of his constants as a member of the Royal family. As Prince of Wales, his foundations, business and public agenda have always reserved a side for activism that he would have found difficult as king. The monarch must maintain political neutrality, even if he personally favors it carbon neutrality. We saw this difficulty a couple of months ago when the government of Rishi Sunak prevented him from participating in the climate summit in Egypt, one of his favorite global events. But now Carlo has found one loophole into which to insert his personal beliefs. Curiously, thanks to a privilege granted by Tony Blair to the Crown in 2004, in the form of renewable energy.

That year, the Blair government decided that wind and solar power produced on royal lands would bring financial benefits to the Crown, similar to how The Crown Estate (the portfolio of investments and businesses that the Crown relies on, although not directly owned by the monarch) benefits from marine resources off the coast of the UK. King Charles has not only increased the share of offshore wind farms managed by the sovereign wealth fund (whose beginnings in renewables date back to the beginning of the century, three years before the Blair concession), but he has decided that his profits will go directly to the public.

In addition to having approved new concessions in his seas for six large wind farms that will generate clean energy for about seven million homes, Carlo has ordered that the revenues from these concessions, exceeding 1.1 billion euros, will not go to the sovereign wealth fund, but to the public coffers, for “the common good”. A gesture that not only certifies that Carlo is not willing to trade his environmentalism for the throne. And it also serves to reconcile one of the tensions of late capitalism: the rampant profits of big companies, especially energy companies, as inflation ate away at street economies.

In the case of the sovereign wealth fund, maritime operations and rent hikes led to record profits last year, which increased sevenfold on the previous year’s results: from a €50 million profit to €357 million. Carlos’ grant aims to ease his share of “sky-falling profits” as well as highlight the benefits of renewable energy to the public. And to contribute almost single-handedly to a British commitment that the Sunak government, much less “green” than that of the former prime minister Boris Johnsondoes not look kindly on: the installation of 50 GW of renewable energy offshore.

Charles’s plan calls for the Crown to provide 80% of this target: up to 41 GW in its seas. Of which 12 are already available. Charles has instructed his personal treasurer to write to the Lord Chamberlain and the Prime Minister to ensure that this revenue of over £1bn is channeled into national budgets and not that of the Crown, recalling in a statement the need for a commitment from the Crown to of the national budget. In a statement he recalled the sovereign wealth fund’s commitment to “energy security and zero emissions commitment” as well as plans to make the English coast better known for its population of wind turbines than cormorants, in a “ecosystem” led by Crown.