Climate ‘a bigger risk than Covid’ says Prince
PRINCE Charles has warned that the climate crisis will “dwarf” the impact of coronavirus.
Charles – who has made green initiatives a cornerstone of his stewardship of the Duchy of Cornwall – was speaking via a recorded message from Birkhall in the grounds of Balmoral, played yesterday on the opening day of Climate Week.
He said that “swift and immediate action” needs to take place to reduce the risk and that the opportunity for resetting the world on the path to a more sustainable and inclusive future must not be missed.
The prince, a keen environmentalist who seeks to run the vast Duchy Estate on environmentally-friendly lines, said the Covid-19 pandemic is a “window of opportunity” to reset the economy and go greener.
Prince Charles, styled Duke of Cornwall in his Duchy, said: “Without swift and immediate action, at an unprecedented pace and scale, we will miss the window of opportunity to ‘reset’ for... a more sustainable and inclusive future.
“In other words, the global pandemic is a wake-up call we cannot ignore...
“...[the environmental] crisis has been with us for far too many years - decried, denigrated and denied.
“It is now rapidly becoming a comprehensive catastrophe that will dwarf the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Charles, 71, who tested positive for coronavirus in March, previously urged members of the Commonwealth to come together to tackle climate change.
He also called on business and political leaders to embrace a radical reshaping of economies and markets in order to tackle the crisis at the Davos summit back in January.
The prince has also met teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
‘The environmental crisis has been with us for too many years - decried, denigrated, denied’ PRINCE CHARLES
Last month a study suggested the global lockdown will have a “negligible” impact on rising temperatures but a green recovery could avert dangerous climate change.
Experts led by the University of Leeds found that lockdowns caused a fall in transport use, as well as reductions in industry and commercial operations, cutting the greenhouse gases and pollutants caused by vehicles and other activities.
However the impact is only shortlived, with analysis showing that even if some measures last until the end of 2021, global temperatures will only be 0.01C lower than expected by 2030.
Prince Charles has made significant investment, through the Duchy, in renewable energy. The Duchy website reports that these include biomass, ground source and solar photovoltaic projects, which “simultaneously serve as tangible examples of best practice, reduce the estate’s carbon footprint, and generate income.”
In Dorset, The Duchy is a partner and lead investor in J V Energen LLP which works with local farmers to build and run the country’s first fullscale anaerobic digester and biomethane-to-grid plant, opened by The Prince of Wales in November 2012.
In July last year a renewable carbon dioxide company, BioCarbonics, set up with Duchy support through J V Energen, started deliveries, including to a cider manufacturer in Herefordshire and a foundry in Oxfordshire. By March this year monthly deliveries of CO2 from renewable sources had reached over 450 tonnes.
In January the Duchy launched a project to reach zero in-house carbon emissions by 2028 and by the end of this year it hopes to publish a comprehensive strategy on how it aims to reach that target, including in its farming interests.