The Duke of Cambridge has held a private meeting with former US Vice President, Al Gore, in Davos. The two chatted behind closed doors during their time at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering, being held in the Swiss resort.
Prince William, who has already interviewed Sir David Attenborough and taken part in a panel on mental health issues during his time in Switzerland, met Al Gore on Wednesday at the forum. Kensington Palace said in a tweet that the men had discussed ”the urgent work needed to address global environmental matters”.
On Tuesday, Al Gore hosted a panel on climate change. The gathering, called ‘Safeguarding Our Planet’, also involved New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, as well as Sir David Attenborough, Anand Mahindra who is Chair of the Mahindra Group and Akira Sakano who chairs Japan’s Waste Academy.
During that public debate, Al Gore spoke of the possibilities of controlling climate change but added that people had to be willing to make an effort to see differences come about. Jacinda Ardern highlighted an issue facing politicians when dealing with environmental matters, saying that often terms in office were short and one of the challenges was integrating long term change into legislation while the chance was there.
Protecting the natural world and environmental issues were the main theme of the thirty minute discussion between the Duke of Cambridge and Sir David Attenborough which took place at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. Prince William’s interview with the environmentalist touched on issues including climate change which Sir David said was a crisis it was ‘’difficult to overstate’’.
The World Economic Forum is an independent organisation set up with the aim of improving life around the globe by engaging leaders in all fields including business, politics and education. Its annual forum runs this year between January 22nd and January 25th . As well as the Duke of Cambridge, royal participants in 2019 have included King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway and his sister, Princess Martha Louise, and Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein.