We must act now to save the planet
PRINCE Charles yesterday urged consumers and the world’s top decision-makers to kick-start a decade of action to save the planet and avert the “approaching catastrophe”.
He launched a new initiative at the World Economic Forum to make goods and services more environmentally sustainable.
In a keynote speech on climate change, Charles told politicians, financiers and business leaders: “You all have a seat at the table – this must be the year that we put ourselves on the right track.
“Do we want to go down in history as the people who did nothing to bring the world back from the brink, in trying to restore the balance, when we could have done? I don’t want to.
“Just think for a moment, what good is all the extra wealth in the world gained from business as usual if you can do nothing with it, except watch it burn in catastrophic conditions?
“This is why I need your help, ingenuity and practical skills – to ensure that the private sector leads the world out of the approaching catastrophe into which we have engineered ourselves.”
He added: “We simply cannot waste any more time. The only limit is our willingness to act. The time to act is now.”
Charles, 71, used his speech in Davos, Switzerland, to launch his Sustainable Markets Council.
It will bring together people with ideas, financiers and philanthropists to “decarbonise the global economy”.
As carbon emissions from pollution cause global warming, Charles cited plans to develop “green” ship engines and electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft within a decade.
Unlike others who flew to the forum by helicopter, Charles arrived in a Jaguar I-PACE electric car.
However, he flew to Switzerland in a private jet for security reasons.
Charles was head-
Warning... ing to the Middle Donald
East for his first Trump official engagements in Israel and Palestine. The prince told the forum that consumers must be told more about product life cycles, supply chains and production methods. Charles said: “With consumers controlling an estimated 60 per cent of global GDP, people around the world have the power to drive the transformation to sustainable markets.
“Yet, we cannot expect consumers to make sustainable choices if these choices are not clearly laid before them.”
Charles also met Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 17, for the first time.
In an interview with CNN, he said: “Well, she’s remarkable, she represents one of the main reasons why I’ve been trying to make all this effort all of these years.
“Because, as I said, I didn’t want my grandchildren to accuse me of not doing something about this in time. And of course there they are, all her generation, almost my grandchildren if you know what I mean, all desperate because not nearly enough has happened – we’ve left it so late.
Catastrophe
“So, I’ve always worried about the fact, so often in terms of humanity we leave everything so late – so you have to hit a brick wall and experience a catastrophe before anything happens.”
The Royal Family’s support for Greta is in stark contrast to US
President Donald Trump, who warned against heeding the “prophets of doom”.
Charles and his sons William and Harry have hailed Greta and other young environmentalists for highlighting the need for urgent action on climate change.
In her Christmas broadcast, the Queen compared young climate activists to her generation’s fight against fascism.
Charles, who arrived in Israel last night, will meet President Reuven Rivlin today.
Tomorrow he will make a speech at the Yad Vashem remembrance
centre, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis’ Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Later, Charles will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, on the West Bank – the first time he has visited the Occupied Territories.
He will also visit the grave of his grandmother Princess Alice, Prince Philip’s mother, at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives.
During the Second World War, Alice helped hide a Jewish family from the Nazis in Athens.