Prince Charles gives speech to EU on climate change

Last week Prince Charles delivered his first speech to the European Parliament for 16 years. In the speech he chose to outline the need for a global partnership to stop the “doomsday clock of climate change”.

The Prince contended that private, public and non-governmental organisations need to work together on the climate crisis.

“For me,” Prince Charles said, “the crux of the problem is - and I only pray I will be proved wrong - that the doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight.

“We are simply not reacting quickly enough. We cannot be anything less than courageous and revolutionary in our approach to tackling climate change.

“If we are not, the result will be catastrophe for all of us, but with the poorest in our world hit hardest of all.”

The Prince’s focus for his speech was rainforest destruction. He described the rainforests as “our planet’s air conditioning system” that “we are destroying.”

“The loss of biodiversity is also terrifying,” he added.

“It has been compared to burning down a library of precious knowledge without first reading the books.”

The Prince went on to say that the private sector needs to be much more involved in saving the rainforests. The Prince’s Rainforests Project was set up to help business get move involved.

The Prince concluded that the EU has the opportunity to be the global leader in tackling climate change.

“Determined and principled leadership has never been more needed,” said the Prince.

“Surely this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created. Climate change presents such a threat that, uniquely in history, it will surely require the effort of every nation and every person to find and implement a solution before it is too late.