Heir to the throne set to call for 'swift and immediate' action to address escalating climate impacts in keynote speech this afternoon
The Prince of Wales has issued a bleak warning this morning that the climate crisis is a "comprehensive catastrophe" that is set to "dwarf the coronavirus pandemic".
In a pre-recorded keynote speech set to be delivered later today at the opening of New York Climate Week, Prince Charles has called for concerted action to address escalating climate impacts.
"Without swift and immediate action, at an unprecedented pace and scale, we will miss the window of opportunity to ‘reset' for… a more sustainable and inclusive future," the Prince of Wales said. "In other words, the global pandemic is a wake-up call we cannot ignore."
The climate crisis, he added, "has been with us for far too many years - decried, denigrated and denied. It is now rapidly becoming a comprehensive catastrophe that will dwarf the impact of the coronavirus pandemic."
Ahead of the annual climate summit, which will bring together business, government and philanthropic organisations, Prince Charles emphasised that younger workers in particular wanted to see action that could set the world on a more sustainable path.
"Billions of people around the world are waiting and longing for concerted action to right the balance of this planet that we have so rashly disrupted," he said. "Millions of younger employees of countless companies and corporations and desperate for action and not more words."
The heir to the throne has long been an advocate of climate action. At this year's World Economic Forum at Davos , he called on leaders to support an "evolution" of the economic model that incorporated the value of nature and in 2015, he addressed the opening session of the UN climate change conference that birthed the Paris Agreement saying: "Your deliberations will decide the fate not only of those alive today but also of generations yet unborn."
Today's speech marks the opening of a week-long virtual conference that is set to see a raft of new deacrbonisation commitments from leading corporates and regional and city governments.
Already today a new analysis has confirmed the number of organisations to set net zero targets has more than doubled since the start of the year, while Walmart has become the latest corporate giant to announce a sweeping net zero emission goal and a group of leading Blue Chips has launched a new initiative to help cut emissions across their supply chains.