Why shouldn't Prince Charles speak out on climate change? The science is clear

Climate change is not a controversial subject - the facts are established, whatever the Mail says. That's why Charles helped write a Ladybird book about it

Ladybird books will this week publish a new title on climate change. Co-authored by the Prince of Wales, the polar scientist Emily Shuckburgh and myself, the book is intended as a plain English guide to the subject for an adult readership. Short, peer-reviewed text sits alongside beautiful new paintings by Ruth Palmer to illustrate the basic briefing.

It has already been greeted in some quarters as another controversial intervention by our future king. But while it's easy to fall behind that line of thinking, it is an increasingly mistaken one. For despite the impression created in some quarters, the truth is that climate change is not controversial. The basic facts are established and increasingly embedded in policy.