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A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales Introducing the BaE 10th anniversary lecture delivered by The Prime Minister, Banqueting House, London
14th September 2004
The Prince of Wales has asked an audience of business leaders in London whether enough is being done to protect the environment.
In an introduction to a speech by The Prime Minister at an event to mark the 10th anniversary of The Prince's Business and the Environment Programme, His Royal Highness questioned whether enough progress was being made to implement changes to promote sustainable development throughout the world.
The Prince said: “So many of the changes we do see look to be largely cosmetic, and where there is real action by the business community it tends to be confined, still, to a comparatively small group of major companies.”
Amid the many environmental challenges facing the planet, The Prince highlighted what he called “the tragically scandalous destruction of the world's fish stocks” as in particularly urgent need of address.
He said the rapid loss of fish stocks was “a classic case of the world's inability to act on a rapidly approaching man-made, industrialised disaster of gigantic proportions. If we can't, collectively, prevent the potential extinction of a crucial part of the world's food supply for future generations, then all this talk of ‘sustainable development' is a cynical charade.”
The Prince's plea for more action was made at the Banqueting House in Whitehall, where more than 400 business leaders and environmentalists had gathered to hear Mr Tony Blair give a major speech on the government's environmental policies.
In his address, The Prime Minister focused on the urgent issue of climate change, warning that the emission of greenhouse gases was causing global warming “at a rate that began as significant, has become alarming and is simply unsustainable in the long-term.” He said if governments around the world did not act together now to tackle the problem, the planet was facing a potential “disaster.”
The Prince of Wales thanked Mr Blair for making such an important speech to so many former and current participants in his Business and the Environment programme. In his introduction, His Royal Highness emphasised the need for all sectors of society, especially the business community, to play a part in promoting sustainable development.
Set up in 1994 and based at the University of Cambridge, Business and the Environment is a forum for senior business executives and other influential figures where they can meet to find guidance and inspiration for making their own transition to corporate sustainability.
The programme brings together an exceptional range of business, academic, political, non-governmental organisations, public service, and institutional leaders from all over the world. In its first 10 years it has generated a close-knit and continuing network of over 650 participants from over 350 organisations in more than 20 countries, with the potential and drive to influence the debate at corporate, public, and political levels.