Charles to join world leaders at the G20 summit in Rome

The Prince of Wales will join world leaders at the G20 summit this weekend, Clarence House has announced.

Presidents and prime ministers are gathering in Rome for a meeting of the world’s leading economies being staged on the eve of the UN climate change conference Cop26, which formally opens on Monday in Scotland.

Charles will give the opening address at the summit in Glasgow and has already warned world leaders heading to Cop26 that action is expected of them.

In the Italian capital the prince will attend the welcoming reception and dinner staged on Saturday evening at the Quirinale Palace, the official residence of Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella.

Among the group who will welcome the prince and other leaders will be President Mattarella and his daughter, Laura Mattarella, and Prime Minister Mario Draghi and his wife Maria Serena Cappello.

Charles, who last visited Rome in 2019 to attend the Canonisation of Cardinal John Henry Newman, will join the leaders for an official photograph before attending the private reception and dinner.

During the G20 summit Prime Minister Boris Johnson will urge leaders of the world’s biggest economies to make good on their commitments to cut damaging carbon emissions.

Downing Street said he would say that the countries which had done most to cause global warming had to make themselves accountable to those nations now experiencing the most severe consequences.