November 2, 2021–In his speech to COP26 on Monday, Prince Charles to harness trillions of dollars in private capital to finance a transition to a green economy.
His remarks are as follows:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the COVID19 pandemic has shown us just how devastating a global cross-border threat can be. Climate change and biodiversity loss are no different.
In fact, they pose and even greater existential threat to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a warlike footing. Having had myself the opportunity of consulting many of you over these past 18 months, I know you all carry a heavy burden on your shoulders.
And you do not need me to tell you that the eyes and hopes of the world are upon you to act with all dispatch and decisively because time has quite literally run out. The reason the recent IPCC report gave us a clear diagnosis of the scale of the problem.
We know what we must do. With a growing global population creating ever increasing demand on the planet’s resources, we have to reduce emissions urgently and take action on the carbon already in the atmosphere, including from coal-fired power stations.
Putting a value on carbon, thus making carbon-capture solutions more economical, is therefore absolutely critical.
Similarly, after billions of years of evolution, nature is our best teacher. In this regard, restoring natural capital, accelerating nature-based solutions and leveraging the circular bio-economy will be vital to our efforts.
As we tackle this crisis, our efforts cannot be a series of individual initiatives running in parallel. The scale and scope of the threat we face call for a global systems level solution based on radically transforming our current fossil-fuel based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable.
So, ladies and gentlemen, my plea today is for countries to come together to create the environment that enables every sector of the industry to take the action required.
We know this will take trillions not billions of dollars. We also know that countries, many of whom are burdened by debt, simply cannot afford to go green.
Here we need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector. With trillions at its disposal, far beyond global GDP. And with the greatest respect beyond even the governments of the world’s leaders, it offers the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.”
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