The new sovereign has not hidden his commitment to the environment with actions and declarations since his youth
The environmental concerns and environmental awareness of the new British sovereign are well known, Charles III, because throughout his life he has left a public record of his concern for the degradation of nature. In this sense, the king today has not placed himself in profile in the face of ecological problems that threaten humanity, but has not hesitated to express his opinions openly, despite the fact that the characteristics of his position could advise greater prudence or distance.
On the contrary, the new monarch has lavished pro-environmental testimonies since his adolescence. It is not something new for him, nor is it the belated whim of an older man converted to noble causes. In no less than February 1970, when he was only 22 years old and few were still talking about these issues, apart from green activists, Carlos gave his first speech on the environment.
He then warned about the dangerous effects that could be caused by the proliferation of plastic waste on the natural environment. That happened 52 years ago!, when this problem was still completely unknown to the vast majority of the population.
“What we do to the ocean and to nature, we ultimately do to ourselves”
“What we do to the ocean and to nature, ultimately, we do to ourselves. The situation is really serious and the consequences of inaction and business as usual are unimaginable,” he said a few months ago. on the island of Palau, during an official visit.
And, on the occasion of the heat waves that the United Kingdom has also experienced this summer, he stated: “If I may say so, commitments around net zero emissions have never been more importantas we all suffocate under today’s alarming record temperatures in Britain and Europe.”
“The climate crisis really is a genuine emergency and addressing it is absolutely essential & rdquor ;, he stated at another time.
But Carlos is not limited to words, these being already important in the case of a personality like him. He too jumps into action. In 2019 he launched the Sustainable Markets Initiative, a “recovery plan that places nature, people and the planet at the center of global value creation & rdquor ;.
As well as being a member of a wide range of environmental organisations, last year he brought together Commonwealth leaders in a series of round tables to discuss how to speed up action on climate change and scale up investment in the process. sustainable type.
For all these actions, the new king has obtained numerous awards and recognitions of an environmental nature, including in 2007 the Global Environmental Citizen of Harvard University (USA) and the Global Environment, which received from the hands of the previous winner, former US Vice President Al Gore. However, in this case, the then prince received criticism from British environmentalists, because he attended the event crossing the ocean aboard a Boeing 747 and with a large entourage, something unsustainable. “He could also have received the award for green hypocrisy & rdquor ;, declared Joss Garman, of the environmental entity Plane Stupid.
“Limits to our human ambition & rdquor;
Subsequently, Carlos assumed his duty to set an example even in seemingly minor actions. “I have always believed that living on a finite planet It means that we have to recognize that this imposes certain restrictions and limits on our human ambition to be able to live, to maintain the viability of the planet & rdquor ;, he affirmed.
In 2013, on the occasion of his 65th birthday, the statements he made in the magazine ‘Country Life’, dedicated to the agricultural world, went even further and revealed that his environmental concerns are also accompanied by social concerns:
“Small farmers have become the buffer against economic uncertainty in food production,” writes Prince Charles. “They are the ones who bear all the risks and the ones who end up receiving the smallest share of the benefits.”
“It is unacceptable that farmers live on 12,600 pounds a year (15,000 euros) and some survive on 8,000, while the large surfaces take the large portion of the cake”, denounced the then Prince of Wales, who recalled how the income of farmers had fallen by 29% in the previous decade while the profits of the six large supermarkets amounted to 7,600 million pounds.
“It is unacceptable that farmers live with 15,000 euros a year, while large surfaces take the large portion of the cake”
In that same article, he was a fervent defender of organic farming: “Critics insist that we are very naive if we think that 9,000 million humans can be fed in this way,” recalls the prince. “It is convenient to make a serious reflection: How can we talk about food scarcity if we waste up to 40% of what is produced, according to UN estimates?”
“We are literally throwing away the equivalent of 470 billion pounds a year“warns the Prince of Wales. “We are talking about an amount six times larger than what is dedicated to development aid,” he added.
With this background, and seeing that ideological approaches are deeply rooted in his character from his early youth, one would expect a reign more committed to the planet than his predecessors. However, as experts point out, the King of the United Kingdom is obliged to avoid political debate and, furthermore, he actually lacks executive power, which remains in the hands of the Government. Even so, the influence and media and social power that his monarch has in Great Britain will undoubtedly be used by Carlos III to continue spreading his message in favor of the planet.
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