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The Prince of Wales to attend Low Carbon Summit in Brussels
27th January 2011
The Prince of Wales has been invited by the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, to attend the Low Carbon Economy Summit and to address the European Parliament. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, will also address the Summit.
The invitation to The Prince was made in recognition of the decades he has spent working to promote environmental awareness and, in particular, his work over the past four years to save the world's remaining tropical rainforests.
The Low Carbon Economy Prosperity Summit, which has been organised by the President of the European Parliament and The Prince’s Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), will bring together the Presidents of the European Commission, Parliament and Council along with MEPs and Chief Executives of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change to discuss low carbon prosperity. It will be the first time this group of leaders has convened publicly on the issue of a low carbon economy. The event aims to build political momentum for a low-carbon Europe by focusing on the business case for carbon reduction and the economic mechanisms needed to improve the rate of progress. The summit will be addressed by Lord Stern and Dr Ottmar Edenhofer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Following his address to the European Parliament The Prince will attend a meeting of European Commissioners hosted by President Barroso at the European Commission Berlaymont building.
The Prince of Wales previously visited Brussels in February 2008 as part of a two-day visit. During that trip HRH met with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso before attending a roundtable discussion with representatives from a number of his charities and European Commissioners. HRH also met European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering before delivering a speech to representatives from the Environment Committee, NGOs and Parliamentarians. This was his second trip to the European Parliament, having visited it in Strasbourg in 1992.