Focus
The Prince of Wales to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
2nd December 2009
The Prince of Wales will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and deliver an opening address at the start of the High Level segment of the Conference on Tuesday 15th December.
His Royal Highness’s invitation from the Danish Government to attend the conference has been made in recognition of his work, undertaken over many decades, to promote environmental awareness and to combat climate change.
The Prince will speak at the opening session of the High Level segment of the Conference. The opening session is not part of the negotiating process, but it helps to set the tone for those discussions.
Through his charities and other initiatives, The Prince has developed considerable practical experience of measures to tackle climate change. The main themes to which he most often returns are the need for sustainable development, for responsible stewardship of our natural resources and for global co-operation to protect our environmental heritage.
In his many speeches given over four decades he has consistently highlighted the pressing need for Mankind to reconnect with Nature and work in harmony with the environment.
Also, during his many official overseas tours on behalf of the UK Government, His Royal Highness has seen first-hand the challenges faced by nations at all levels, and in recent years tackling climate change has assumed an ever higher priority in his overseas programmes and charitable activities.
For example, in March 2009 The Prince visited the Amazon and met people who depend on the rainforest for their survival, and in 2008 visited the Harapan rainforest in Indonesia where he met villagers and saw the measures being taken to preserve the forest.
Two years ago, The Prince established The Prince’s Rainforests Project (www.rainforestsos.org) to try to develop a consensus on practical solutions to reduce the rate of the destruction of the world’s tropical rainforests.
Experts agree that without a solution to deforestation there is no solution to climate change.
In April, The Prince hosted a meeting about deforestation in the margins of the G20 in London attended by more than a dozen heads of state and government (link).
At the meeting an Informal Working Group was established to consider specific proposals. The Working Group, which comprised 35 countries, issued its final report in November which offers practical proposals for an emergency funding package to save the rainforests.
Click hereto visit the official website of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.