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King Charles III

Prince Charles: “Climate Change Agreement, the New Magna Carta”

Prince Charles attended The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit meeting on Forests, Climate Change and Development at the British Academy in London on Monday.

The Prince has asked the international community to act on climate change before it becomes an irreparable condition. He noted the climate change agreement, set for launch in December by the UNVCCC in Paris, should “be seen as a new Magna Carta for the Earth, and humanity’s relationship with it.”

Magna Carta, which restricted the power of the monarch and established basic rights for people in England, celebrates its 800th anniversary this year.

During his meeting on Monday, Charles, a tireless supporter of the environment and its future, advised that the new climate change agreement ought to consider the Earth and extend a sustainable resolution for handling climate change.

“It is clear to me that this year provides an absolutely crucial opportunity – if not the last chance before we end up in an irreversible situation – for the international community to establish a new set of interlocking, coherent and ambitious frameworks governing human development, poverty, disaster risk reduction, the natural environment and climate change,” Charles commented.

He continued: “We could, and should, see an agenda set for the coming decades that is capable of transforming the prospects for humanity by improving and nurturing the state of the planet upon which we depend.”

The climate deal in Paris focus is to make certain that the world is on course to limit rising temperatures to a 2C increase. Anything past that point, scientists have cautioned that the effects of climate change will become more unstable, volatile and possibly irrevocable

Concluding his address to those gathered on Monday, Charles, commenting as a grandfather, noted his commitment to attempting to find a solution to climate change:

“So, above all, I pray this meeting will give rise to further ambitious international partnerships to implement good policies and incentives on sustainable land use and integrated, ecologically minded, truly resilient rural development in all countries of the world. We need to see real commitment to putting rural communities and forest conservation first, because we have no more time to lose, and because I can’t believe most of us would want to earn the condemnation of our grandchildren for our deliberate failure to safeguard their future. With a new grandchild on its way into this increasingly uncertain world, I certainly do not.”

An indefatigable supporter of environmental issues including climate change, Charles continues to fight for the future.

Featured Photo Credit: Northern Ireland Office via photopin cc