November 14, 2024

In 1970, the young Prince of Wales made a speech warning of the dangers of pollution, and said that society must immediately face the cost of cleaning it up, and preventing it in the first place.

“We are faced at this moment with the terrible effects of pollution in all its forms of cancer. There is a growing threat of oil pollution in the sea, which will almost destroy the beaches and certainly destroy tens of thousands of birds of the sea,” he told the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales. “There is chemical pollution being released into rivers from factories and chemical plants, which clog rivers with toxic substances and add to the pollution of the oceans . There is air pollution from smoke and fumes emitted by factories and from gases pumped out by endless cars and airplanes.”

That speech, made when he was 21 years old, was greeted as “dotty” at the time, he later recalled, but now it seems prescient.

“He is possibly the most important environmental figure of all time,” says veteran environmental campaigner Tony Juniper, a former head of Friends of the Earth and now head of Natural England, who has advised Charles on many years and with him two books. . “Considering the breadth of issues he sought to advance, and the consistency with which he did so. For more than 50 years he has demonstrated commitment, energy and passion. He has an extraordinary depth of knowledge and his impact is tremendous big.

The Prince of Wales met climate activist Greta Thunberg after she gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2020.
The Prince of Wales met climate activist Greta Thunberg after she gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2020. Photo: World Economic Forum/PA

For Charles, this concern began in childhood, especially at Balmoral, where the Queen, his mother, died this week. He developed a passion for the outdoors, and an interest in farming, and in the 1980s his Cornwall estate, Highgrove, started down the path of regenerative organic agriculture, leading to the establishment of the Duchy organic brand. He also founded the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group, which brings together business leaders to sign up to green pledges.

In the run-up to Cop26, for example, he invited the special US climate envoy John Kerry to Clarence House in London, a distinct contrast to the government, which failed to send a minister when Kerry made a mayor. speech at Kew. He presented the Terra Carta, or earth charter, of environmental goals. His work on rainforests and species preservation has also been taken up by his son Prince William.

This work troubled Charles. Jonathon Porritt, the former leader of the Green party and Friends of the Earth, who also advised Charles as Prince of Wales, remembers the mid-80s when the UK dumped sewage into the North Sea. Charles addressed the problem publicly, asking why it hadn’t been stopped.

“Nicholas Ridley [then environment secretary] very angry,” Porritt recalled. “He is angry that the Prince of Wales has chosen to use his profile in Europe to burn a broad – even though he [Charles] neither Ridley nor anyone else in the government was named.”

Many people may feel that Charles oversteps the bounds of the constitutional monarchy at times, his supporters acknowledge. As well as his public speeches, there are private “black spider” letters to government ministers raising concerns on green, and other, issues. But his friends argue that his lines are carefully drawn.

Prince Charles travels in a trailer through floodwaters in Muchelney after the Somerset Levels flooded in 2014.
Prince Charles travels in a trailer through the waters of Muchelney after the flooding of the Somerset Levels in 2014. Photo: Reuters

“He handled it skillfully, within the scope of his constitutional role,” Porritt said, adding that the “black spider” letters were not “severe rants”, but carefully crafted questions.

As a prince, he can also deal with issues that politicians avoid. In 2013, he made a shocking speech criticizing “confirmed doubts” and “the international association of corporate sponsors” who he said were responsible for the land being a “dying patient”.

“People have different views on the monarchy, but I hope that people will be convinced of the extent of his judgment. [on the environment] good,” Juniper said. “He raised the alarm on subjects that were once seen as fringe.”

Will King Charles continue to talk about the environment from the throne? “Absolutely not,” Porritt said. It had always been understood, he said, that the relative freedom Charles enjoyed as Prince of Wales would end as soon as he took the crown. “There is no shadow of doubt that whatever he did, convening or some say campaigning, he was very clear that when he inherited his role, that was it. “

While as prince he could act as a “one-person NGO”, as one supporter put it, as king he would be bound by the convention that the monarch should not interfere in UK political decision-making, or take any obvious political stance. . In recent years, he has tended to tone down his public rhetoric: the blistering attack on corporate vested interests in 2013 has not been repeated, although he continues with some of his wiser interventions, taking a role for example in convening countries and businesses. ahead of the 2015 Paris climate summit.

His work with the Commonwealth could also be key. Pakistan, the second most populous country in the Commonwealth, has suffered severe flooding, with a third of the country under water. Many others in the 56 countries are equally vulnerable to rising temperatures, and the Commonwealth is seen as an important forum for solutions to the climate crisis.

Charles is said to be well aware of the charms of his position, which means his public persona as king is likely to be carefully curated. Private discussions, however, are another matter.

Traditionally, the monarch meets the prime minister once a week for a strictly confidential conversation. That’s where Charles expresses his concerns about the environment in the UK and around the world, and what solutions can be made to the growing crisis of climate and biodiversity.

“Whoever is prime minister should probably expect a spirited set of conversations on any deficits, in private,” Porritt said. “Not immediately, of course, but in due time. Maybe a year or so down the line. They better get ready.”

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