Crown Prince Haakon visited Botswana from November 11th to 13th in his capacity as Goodwill Ambassador for UNDP. The Prince met Vice President Mompati Merafhe with whom he discussed key topics related to development cooperation effort. Afterwards he met the Minister for Foreign Affairs Phandu Skelemani and the permanent secretaries of the Ministries of Environment, Wildlife & Tourism, as well as local UN representatives.

Click at the image to see it at Kongehuset.no

On Thursday Prince Haakon paid a visit to the Okavango Delta, which is the world’s largest inland delta.
There he met with the local authorities and fishermen and talked to them about fishing conditions in the delta.

In the afternoon Prince Haakon visited Xakanaxa in the Moremi Game Reserve. There he had a look at how water resources are managed. The aim of the visit to Botswana is to look at the impact of climate change and the battle against poverty in Botswana.

Prince Haakon was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in 2003. Since then he has visited Tanzania, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Burundi, Mongolia and now Botswana.

You can read two articles about Haakon’s visit to Botswana here and here.

Her_Majesty Norwegian Royals Botswana, Climate Change, Official Visit, Poverty, Prince Haakon, United Nations

An official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam this morning officially began the first state visit to Vietnam by a Danish Head of State.

View the image at ANP

HM Queen Margrethe II, accompanied by TRH the Prince Consort, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, was welcomed by the Vietnamese President Nguyen Minth Triet and a full guard of honour. The President’s wife, First Lady Tran Thi Kim Chi, was also on hand for the welcoming. Despite the sub-tropic climate, the Queen and the President stood under a shaded platform while the remainder of the party stood in the sunshine. It was here, during the national anthems, that Crown Princess Mary was the victim of mother nature – a gust of wind blew her hat straight of her head and into the arms of a nearby official.

View the image at the MoFA Denmark

After regaining her hat, and composure, the Princess joined her family in an audience with the President and First Lady. Queen Margrethe and President Triet had much to discuss, covering a wide variety of topics from Danish-Vietnamese relations, economic issues and culture. A pressing issue was the effect climate change will have on Vietnam. Both the Queen and President highlighted this, with President Triet thanking Denmark for their recent committment to an aid package worth $US40 million to assist Vietnam with climate change. Queen Margrethe also extended an invitation to the President to visit Denmark in the future.

View the image at ANP

From there, it was on to two seperate wreath laying ceremonies. The first was at the Monument for National Heroes and Martyrs, where Vietnamese soldiers assisted in the laying of the wreath for the royals. The second ceremony was at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

While Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik met with Nguyen Phu Trong, the President of the Vietnamese National Assembly, the Crown Prince Couple paid a visit to the Bang and Olufsen store in Hanoi where Crown Prince Frederik helped to launch a new product line called BeoVision 10 to the Asian market. In the early afternoon, Frederik headed off to officially open the new brewery of the Hanoi Beer Company. The Prince was then treated to a tour of the building, followed by a tasting (or two) of the Company’s finest. Read more…

JessRulz Danish Royals Climate Change, Margrethe II, President Triet, Prince Frederik, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Princess Mary, State Visit, Vietnam

Click to see belga gallery

Yesterday, 09 Sept., Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden officially opened the exhibition “It’s our Earth 2. From Kyoto to Copenhagen” at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. This is the new edition of the exhibition “It’s our Earth”,  which focused on sustainable energy and development. Because of the great demand, the original exhibition was reopened, under the new name and with new emphasis on the influence of the human presence on the Earth, biodiversity, global warming and other contemporary issues.

The royals want to show their support for the efforts that are being undertaken to make people conscious of the need to change their habits, to counter global warming, climate change, and everything entailed in it.

In the afternoon, Prince Philippe and Princess Victoria attended the conference “Climate and Jobs – The EU’s Global Agenda”. The conference was organized by Sweden. The country is currently President of the Council of the European Union.

For more information on the exhibition, see here.
For pictures and a discussion of the visit, see here and here.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals, Swedish Royals Climate Change, Exhibition, Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde, Princess Victoria

  Wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Ruler of Dubai, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein United Nations Messenger of Peace and Chairperson of International Humanitarian City addressed Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) which was on impact of climate change on women. The forum took place in Geneva June 25.

Princess Haya joined a panel of experts where she talked about the struggles poor women face and the need to reach out to women to influence policy. Princess Haya also highlighted the need to use women to make a change through the existing routes which are established by UN agencies on other programmes.

‘Women are at the heart of poverty and account for 70 percent of those most affected by climate change,” stated Princess Haya.

dazzling Jordanian Royals, UAE Royals Climate Change, Humanitarian Efforts, Princess Haya, Switzerland

 Crown Princess Mary spent the day yesterday in London, undertaking three official engagements which were all related to Denmark.

Click to see the gallery at Zimbio

Wearing a red and white summer dress by Strenesse, recycled from last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing and her September 2008 visit to Bulgaria with husband Frederik, and a blue-grey jacket; Mary’s first engagement was a luncheon hosted by the Ambassador to Denmark, Birger Riis-Jørgensen, at the Embassy of Denmark on Sloane Street. The luncheon was held to mark the “Building Schools for the Future – Learning from Denmark” seminar currently taking place in London, and was also attended by Danish architects and their British business relations.

Click to see the gallery at Zimbio

This was followed by the official announcement of the eight British students selected to take part in the Bright Green Youth! conference, which will take place between August 8 and 10 this year in the Danish city of Sønderborg. Mary presented the students with diplomas, once again at the Embassy of Denmark, this time dressed in a sleeve-less brown dress with dark brown detailing on the waist and gold sequins.

That evening, the Crown Princess visited Tate Modern for the opening of the Per Kirkeby retrospective art exhibition. Joined by the Danish artist himself, Mary was given a private tour of the exhibition.

Click here to read more about Mary’s day visit to London.

JessRulz Danish Royals Climate Change, England, Exhibition, Princess Mary

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Princess Mette-Marit attended the ‘CC9 – Climate Conference’ at Hafslund Manor on June 4, 2009 in Sarpsborg.

Prince Haakon opened the Climate Conference 2009.
Norwegian and international social players were invited by Norwegian power company Hafslund, Bellona Foundation environmental organisation and the international organisation of former heads of state and government, The Club of Madrid.

Click here to see the picture at Side2

Click here to get to the cc9 homepage

The Crown Princely coupe is known for their engagement in enviromental causes. The Crown Prince just returned from a visit to Greenland to study the climate change.

You can read more about the committed royals, the CC9 and the Children’s Climate Festival in this article.
You can read Haakon’s Speech here.
A TRF thread can be found here.

Her_Majesty Norwegian Royals Climate Change, Prince Haakon, Princess Mette-Marit

 Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway are on a visit to Greenland. The Scandinavian Heirs are visiting Greenland to study the climate change.
The Royal trip is scheduled from may 27th until june 1st.

Click at the image to see a gallery at Tv2

The official activities will include a meeting with international scientists drilling in Greenland’s ice sheet. There the Royals will learn more about how the planet’s climate has changed through time and the global warming.

A TRF thread about the visit can be found here.

Last year the three Scandinavian Heirs already made a trip together when they traveled to Svalbard as protectors of the International Polar Year in their respective countries.

Her_Majesty Danish Royals, Norwegian Royals, Swedish Royals Climate Change, Greenland, Prince Frederik, Prince Haakon, Princess Victoria

 The State Visit from Greece to Denmark continued yesterday, with the Crown Prince and Princess stepping into the spotlight and accompanying President Papoulias and First Lady Papoulia to the various engagements that were attended.

Click to see the images at Polfoto

Crown Prince Frederik was first to step up to the plate, viewing an energy exhibition at the Danish Ministry of Environment with the visitors. They visited the off-shore wind farm near Copenhagen Harbour. The trio then moved on to visit the “Mountain Dwellings” building in Ørestaden. President Papoulias and the Crown Prince then attended a climate change luncheon, before the President moved to the Mindelunden Memorial Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony. This particular cemetery is for executed freedom fighters and resistence movement members who died during the Second World War in concentration camps.

Click to see the images from Billed Bladet

In the afternoon, Crown Princess Mary took First Lady Papoulia to visit the Skodsborg Observation and Treatment Home, which is a home for special-needs children. The two women then moved on to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk.

In the evening, the entire royal clan was out in force once more, attending an evening concert and return dinner hosted by President Papoulias at the State Museum for Art (Danish National Gallery).

The thread for the State Visit can found be here.

JessRulz Danish Royals Climate Change, Greece, President Papoulias, Prince Frederik, Princess Mary, State Visit

  The three heirs to the Scandinavian thrones of Denmark, Norway and Sweden will embark on a six-day trip to Greenland later this month, to gain insight into how climate change is affecting the nation and its people.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will travel aboard the HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen ship from Kangerlussuaq, in south-western Greenland, through Disko Bay where they will observe the changes to the natural environment that climate change has caused, and listen to lectures on the affects on the Artic environment.

The trio will be accompanied by several internationally renowned researchers, and will also visit Qeqertarsuaq and Ilulissat. Various research stations will be visited along the visit, which runs from May 27th to June 1st.

The visit follows the heirs’ June 2008 visit to Svalbard in Norway, which also focused on climate change.

The thread, which will contain more information and images as they come about, can be found here at TRF.

JessRulz Danish Royals, Norwegian Royals, Swedish Royals Climate Change, Environment, Greenland, Prince Frederik, Prince Haakon, Princess Victoria

Click to see more pictures at Zimbio

Still in Chicago earlier today, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary kicked the day off early, attending the 9:45am call for the Climate and Energy Conference arranged by the City of Chicago and the Royal Danish Embassy of Washington DC. Frederik gave the opening remarks at the conference, before he and his wife moved on to a presentation of the green intiatives of Chicago with the Mayor and his wife.

Mayor Richard Daley and his wife Maggie showed their visitors Chicago’s “green roofs”, before taking them to the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millenium Park. A lunch was held just after noon with the royals and conference delegates.

The afternoon saw Frederik and Mary visit the Danish Home, a home for senior citizens of Chicago who have Danish heritage. There, the pair mingled with the residents, and Frederik had his picture taken with some elderly women.

And just recently, pictures have come out of the Crown Princely Couple in Des Moines, Iowa, attending a dinner with representatives of the Danish-American community to mark the historical ties between Denmark and Iowa.

More pictures and information can be found here.

JessRulz Danish Royals Climate Change, Official Visit, Prince Frederik, Princess Mary, United States of America