The Prince of Wales has repeated his call for urgent climate action, saying that the prospect of leaving his grandchildren a “poisoned chalice” fills him with horror.
An ardent environmental campaigner, the Prince says the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child later this year motivates him to push for tougher measures to address climate change and deforestation.
“I’ve gone on for years about the importance of thinking about the long-term in relation to the environmental damage, climate change and everything else,” he told UK TV channel ITV.
“We don’t, in a sensible world, want to hand on an increasingly dysfunctional world to our grandchildren, to leave them with the real problem.
“I don’t want to be confronted by my future grandchild and (have) them say: ‘Why didn’t you do something?’ So clearly now that we will have a grandchild, it makes it even more obvious to try and make sure we leave them something that isn’t a total poisoned chalice.”
Last year Prince Charles sent a video message to delegates at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio, calling for greater focus to be placed on deforestation, ocean pollution and the green economy.
“We are facing challenges that are increasing rather than diminishing in their severity and urgency,” he said. “And yet we seem resolved to be resolutely adamant for drift.”