Prince Charles Delivers Strong Words On The Climate At COP26
While we constantly hear the concept of climate change as a hot political topic, it is much more serious than an argument to be had on a presidential debate stage. According to the World Economic Forum, the planet could cross a dangerous temperature threshold as early as 2027. Now, more than ever, we need our world leaders to step up and fight for greener initiatives.
The G-20 summit met this weekend in Rome before heading to Glasgow to continue their COP26 meeting to fight the climate crisis (via CNBC). The G-20 summit consists of countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, amongst others, who make up roughly 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
While these meetings should provide hope for citizens of the world who are concerned for the state of the environment, many activists found the summit to be pointless this year. Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace International said the statements given this weekend were "weak, lacking both ambition and vision, and simply failed to meet the moment.
However, a surprising statement was made by the Prince of Wales that sent a strong message about moving forward to remedy the climate crisis.
Prince Charles calls for unity in fighting climate change
Prince Charles went into the G-20 summit and COP26 meeting with activists in mind. According to the BBC, he issued a heartfelt message about looking out for the younger generation's concerns at the meeting. "All these young people feel nothing is ever happening so of course they're going to get frustrated. I totally understand because nobody would listen and they see their future being totally destroyed."
He stuck to his word and delivered a strong message at the meeting this weekend. "Climate change and biodiversity loss are no different," he said. "In fact, they pose an even greater existential threat to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing," he added, "the eyes and hopes of the world are upon you to act with all dispatch, and decisively — because time has quite literally run out," (via CNBC).
He continued by calling on other countries to join the fight for a better climate, pleading for "countries to come together to create the environment that enables every sector of industry to take the action required. We know this will take trillions, not billions of dollars."