CNN: King Charles III told world leaders Friday that the warning signs of the climate crisis are being ignored and that the world is heading for “dangerous uncharted territory,” with devastating consequences for lives and livelihoods.

World Climate Action Summit

Delivering an opening address to delegates at the World Climate Action Summit, part of the COP28 summit in Dubai, the King said he prayed “with all my heart that COP28 will be a critical turning point towards genuine transformational action.”

“Some important progress has been made but it worries me greatly that we remain so dreadfully far off track,” he said, adding, “we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits and into dangerous uncharted territory.”

Referring to this year’s climate change-fueled extreme weather, including Canada’s unprecedented wildfire season, deadly flooding in Pakistan and Bangladesh and catastrophic drought in East Africa, the King told delegates that the “hope of the world” rested on decisions taken at the summit.