Prince Charles believes private sector ‘holds key’ to tackling environmental issues

Prince Charles believes private companies “hold the key” to the fight against climate change.

The 72-year-old royal believes there is an “overwhelming responsibility” to “these unborn generations” to tackle the environmental crisis and he called on governments to engage more with the private sector and consider some of their “innovations”. ideas and inventions.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, he wrote: “I have learned from global experts who have dedicated their lives to tackling climate change. I have listened intently to the leaders of many countries, especially the Commonwealth countries, whose communities are among the most climatic. -vulnerable on Earth, and I have found it impossible not to hear the desperate voices of young people who care about the world they will inherit from the current generation of stewards of their planet.

“And I have listened to the leaders of the private sector, increasingly eager to invest in innovative projects and new technologies that will help create the necessary and rapid transition to sustainability and ensure a cleaner planet for all,” safer and healthier. For me, the private sector holds the key. I’m not sure we’re actually listening enough to them.

Charles explained how business leaders are “extremely responsive” to customer and investor demands to be more sustainable and is aware that they want to use their money to help the planet – something he insisted on. the fact that world leaders must accept.

He said: “Why is this kind of private investment important? If we are to meet the vital climate target of 1.5 degrees – a target that will save our forests and our farms, our oceans and our wildlife – we have billions of dollars of investment each year to create the new infrastructure needed to create the transition to sustainability. Governments alone cannot raise this kind of money. But the private sector can, working in close partnership with governments. governments and civil society.

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But he acknowledged that companies in return wanted “clear market signals” from governments to help them with their planning, as well as “the correction of misalignments between institutional, regulatory and legal frameworks.”

He noted: “Realigning incentives, assigning an appropriate value to carbon, finding innovative and sustainability-aligned ways to cope with the growing debt burden as well as implementing national platforms seem absolutely essential, if we want to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries as a transition occurs.

“Large-scale solutions only seem possible if there is a much closer partnership between government, major multilateral banks, the private sector and its investors.

And in addition, Charles underlined an “urgent need” for the G20 countries to “provide sovereign risk guarantees” so that companies can unlock “the huge sums of money needed to make this public / private partnership a reality. “.

He added: “And this in turn is our only hope if we are to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees.

“There is finally a broad global agreement that we face a formidable threat to the future of humanity and of Nature itself and that we must, now, translate the fine words into even more beautiful actions. Surely, if we managed to put the differences aside, we could see it as a unique opportunity to launch a substantial green stimulus for the benefit of all.

“This could be the story of the growth of our time, establishing a global economy that follows a confident and sustainable course and thus saves our planet.”