Prince calls on shoppers to help to save the seas
THE Prince of Wales will call on consumers to make “ocean and land-friendly choices” when shopping and to buy “certified” products to help safeguard the world’s oceans.
Addressing issues of major concern in the Westcountry, including sustainable commercial fishing, buying local produce and reducing the plastic waste going into the oceans, Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall, will address a major global conference today.
In a major speech to the Our Ocean conference, Charles will warn the decline in the health of waters across the globe is “dire” and the “consequences of inaction and ‘business as usual’ are unimaginable”.
The heir to the throne will say that, in response to the “crisis”, he hopes the summit will lead to a “global alliance” between the private, public and non-governmental organisation (NGO) sectors, and set out a series of solutions, from tackling, on a “massive scale”, plastic pollution to nations beginning to “increase, enforce and finance marine protection”.
The transition to sustainable energies, he will say, also needs to be “fast-tracked and scaled up” to combat the growing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and oceans where it leads to acidification which threatens coral reefs.
In a pre-recorded video speech, that will be screened during the summit’s opening day, Charles will tell delegates: “By rewarding sustainable fishing practices, and penalising those that are not, we can incentivise better ocean management.
“As consumers, we should make ocean and land-friendly choices when we make our purchases. Selecting certified products is a good place to start – and this can increasingly be done through digital ID.”
Setting out the scale of the issue, the prince will say: “Despite the essential role the ocean plays in maintaining harmony between nature, people and planet, human activity over the past several centuries has contributed to the rapid decline in ocean health, be it from global warming, unsustainable, unreported, unregulated and illegal fishing practices or pollution.
“No one knows this better than the world’s ‘large ocean states’ who are seeing the impact at first-hand. This situation is indeed dire. The consequences of inaction and ‘business as usual’ are unimaginable.”
The online conference is being hosted by the United States and Palau, an archipelago of more than 500 Pacific Ocean islands.
The prince’s speech will follow his address at the recent Cop26 UN climate change summit, staged in Glasgow, where he said the world has had enough of talking and “we need to put our words and commitments into practice”.
Other speakers during the two-day summit will include former US President Barack Obama and the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry.
Charles will also tell delegates the economic system is at the heart of the problem because “it is at odds and not in harmony with, nature’s own economy” but could be key to the solution if “re-targeted”.
He will also make the case for investing in ocean habitats, and tell the conference that “recent reports have demonstrated that, for every dollar invested in Marine Protected Areas, there is a return of ten dollars. The economic case is clear.”