Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CARBON FOOTPRINCE
CHARLES IN ECO CONTROVERSY He flies helicopter 125 miles for speech on climate change £12k chopper trip emits 12 times more pollution than driving
PRINCE Charles flew 125 miles by helicopter to talk about LOWERING aircraft emissions.
He went from Highgrove to Cambridge, made a speech and was then dropped off at Sandringham.
It cost £12,000 and the carbon footprint was a huge 2.5 tonnes – that’s 12 times higher than by car.
CLIMATE campaigner Prince Charles was last night at the centre of an eco row for lecturing scientists on reducing aircraft emissions – after flying in on the Queen’s helicopter.
The royal – already under fire over air travel costing £280,000 last month – flew 178 miles on two journeys.
But the chopper’s total journey, to and from base, was 368 miles.
Charles was picked up at Highgrove, Glos, and flown 125 miles to Cambridge.
A Bentley then ferried him the last few miles to Cambridge University’s worldleading Whittle Laboratory.
Its scientists are leading research into the decarbonisation of air travel and aim to develop the first zero-carbon flight.
During a speech to researchers Charles, 71, urged them to “act quickly to rescue this poor old planet”.
But within minutes of speaking he was back in the air again – flying the 53 miles to Sandringham to see the Queen.
Experts say the helicopter’s full journey, involving four flights, caused carbon emissions of around 2.5 tonnes, used hundreds of gallons of aviation fuel, and cost at least £12,000.
It is estimated Charles could have cut his carbon footprint down to an estimated 0.2 tonnes if he had gone by car.
He could have made the same trips by train for just £91.20, including a £10.70 single from Cambridge to King’s Lynn, the station the Queen uses to get to Sandringham.
Eco groups and royal watchers slammed the prince last night.
Graham Smith, CEO of campaign group Republic, said: “He wants to play the role, but not walk the walk. His view seems to be that it’s one rule for him and one rule for the rest of us. Driving or using the train would have been pretty easy.”
Dr Lucy Gilliam, aviation and shipping campaigner for environmental group Transport & Environment, said: “Private planes and helicopters use 10 to 20 times the carbon emissions of just taking a normal plane, a train or an electric car.
“He could have used a private car with a chauffeur, ideally an electric one if he really wanted to walk the walk. He can definitely afford a Tesla.
“I don’t doubt that Prince Charles really does get the message, but if he wants to be really effective, he must make those changes that will send such an enormous signal to the world.”
A Clarence House spokesman said: “The Prince is not personally involved in decisions around his transportation arrangements though he ensures all carbon emissions are offset every year. “In order for him to undertake as many engagements as he does across the UK and around the world he sometimes has to fly. As he has often said, as soon as there is a more sustainable way of making these journeys, he’ll be the first to use it.”
Flight tracking records show the maroon Sikorsky S-76 C++ twin engine chopper was despatched from RAF Odiham, Hants, to pick Charles up at Highgrove, 60 miles away.
It then flew the 125 miles to Cambridge and on to Sandringham. After dropping Charles at the royals’ Norfolk estate the chopper headed back to RAF Odiham – another 130 miles.
The row comes barely a week after Charles was criticised when private jets and helicopters flew him 16,000 miles in the days before he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
That was where he met Swedish ecoactivist Greta Thunberg, 17 – who made a double crossing of the Atlantic by boat earlier this year after refusing to fly.
Charles made a point of using an electric Jaguar I-Pace executive car to travel through the Alps to meet the teenager.
But it was found that in the 11 days before meeting Greta he had taken three flights on gas-guzzling private jets, and one on a helicopter at an estimated cost of £280,000.
They pumped out more than 162
metric tons of carbon – 12 times the annual amount produced by a typical car-using Brit.
Campaigner Lucy Gilliam said Greta, not Charles, was sending out the right message.
She added: “Greta has shown the difference you can make when you actually walk the walk. It’s really important because all of the social research that has been done shows that in terms of the public understanding the message, when they look at the people giving the message, the behaviour of the person giving the message is really important.
She has been meeting with many of these people and I wonder what it would take for these other people in positions of power, who are on board with the message, to actually change their behaviours.
“How much more of Australia or the Amazon needs to burn? How much more real does climate change need to get before the rich actually look at their own carbon footprint? We’re really running out of time.”
The Royal Family’s carbon footprint nearly doubled in the last financial year because of an increasing number of flights, up from 1,687 to 3,344 tonnes.
And royal accounts for 2018-19, the latest available, show Charles tops the travel list, burning through £1.13million in costs for the year.
The carbon footprint – carbon dioxide released as a direct result of an activity – of an average person in the UK is 13 tonnes a year.
Charles has previously urged all of his staff to cycle to work.
He has told how he hopes to connect people with ideas on how to slash carbon emissions with financiers and philanthropists who can help put the plans into action. The prince has also made a commitment to using public transport “where appropriate” and has championed the use of biofuels blended with normal aviation fuel as a transitional step towards creating carbon-free flight.
The latest embarrassment comes five months after his youngest son Harry, 35, and daughter-in-law Meghan, 38, faced criticism for using four private jets in just 11 days during return trips to Nice and Ibiza in August.
And for years, Charles’s younger brother Andrew was dubbed “Air Miles Andy” for his relentless globetrotting.
COLLABORATE
Charles is the Royal Founding Patron of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. It is set to collaborate with The New Whittle Laboratory to work on plans to develop zero-carbon flights, hoping to cut the aviation sector’s carbon footprint to net zero by 2050.
Scientists and engineers at the centre, one of the largest turbomachinery labs in the world, will work to develop other technologies which will allow decarbonisation across the aviation industry, and other sectors.
During his speech at Cambridge Charles called on the “genius” of boffins to “act quickly” to address climate change.
He said: “We have to bring everybody together so we don’t have endless argy-bargees about it.
“We haven’t got time to waste. We have run out of time now to rescue this poor old planet from man-made emissions and all the complications we’re now facing, all the challenges we’re facing.”
He said he wishes the centre “every possible success, because we all depend upon it to save this planet”.
The Whittle Laboratory was opened in 1973 by Sir Frank Whittle, whose original designs led to the development of systems used today to power huge aircraft over long distances.