Only a global green ‘reset’ will save us warns Charles
The world will face growing numbers of pandemics unless the global economy is rebuilt to be environmentally friendly after Covid-19, Prince Charles warned yesterday.
The heir to the throne called for a “Great Reset” of the world economy to make it more sustainable and fair.
He said nations now had a “golden opportunity” to seize something good from the coronavirus crisis.
Charles co-hosted an international video conference event with the World Economic Forum in Davos to launch the initiative, which aims to inspire politicians, business leaders, investors and governments to work together to create a green recovery.
Speaking from his Scottish home Birkhall, the Prince of Wales said: “Unless we take the action necessary and we build again in a greener and more sustainable and more inclusive way, then we will end up having more and more pandemics and more and more disasters.”
The Prince supports the belief that climate change, coupled with the destruction of the environment, brings wild animals and humans into closer contact, creating the conditions for diseases to pass between them.
He said: “In addition to Covid-19, over the last few decades we have seen bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, Mers, Sars, which are all zoonotic diseases originating in animals. We need to restore balance with the natural world through decisive action on climate change and restoring biodiversity.”
Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, told the conference, which included business leaders from BP, Microsoft and Mastercard as well as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres: “The Covid-19 crisis has shown us that our old systems are not fit any more for the 21st century. It has laid bare the funda mental lack of social cohesion, fairness, inclusion, and equality.”
In an interview with Sky News to be screened tonight in a programme After The Pandemic: Our New World, the Prince was asked about his own experiences of the virus in March.
Charles, 71, said: “It makes me even more determined to push and shout and prod. I was lucky in my case and got away with it quite lightly.
“I feel particularly for those who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That to me is the most ghastly thing. But in order to prevent this happening to so many more people, I’m so determined to find a way out of this.”
‘We need to restore the balance with the natural world’