Prince Charles says world in 'last chance saloon' to stop climate change
The Prince of Wales has warned the world is in the "last chance saloon" in its attempts to prevent catastrophic climate change, with most people failing to appreciate the urgency.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:27AM BST 28 May 2009

Prince Charles said world leaders must not hesitate in reducing carbon emissions Photo: AP
Prince Charles, a long-term environmentalist, said that while global warming is set to cause "the extinction of millions of species and organisms", the majority of people are not willing to take action to prevent temperatures rising.

Addressing the Nobel Laureates Symposium at St James's Palace in London, he said: "I don't know about your own experience, but it seems to me that whilst there is now only a mercifully small (if vociferous) number of people who do not accept the science of climate change and who should know better, there are still a great many who fail to recognise the real urgency of the situation.


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RSPB calls for increase in windfarms"Even in the last few weeks there has been further evidence from scientists at the Potsdam Institute Climate Impact Research and the University of Oxford that it will take much longer for the climate to recover from excessive warming than previously thought. In so many ways we already are in the last chance saloon."

The three-day meeting will end in a memorandum that is likely to influence any international agreement on climate change made in Copenhagen in December.

Prince Charles said world leaders must not hesitate in reducing carbon emissions. He has already suggested paying poorer countries not to cut down rainforests after research showed more than a fifth of carbon emissions are caused by deforestation.

"It seems to me that in many ways we already have some of the answers to hand," he said.

"We know about energy efficiency, renewable energy, and how to reduce deforestation, to name but a few, but we seem strangely reluctant to apply them. I fear that this hesitation will have catastrophic consequences."

Rain forests also produced much of the world's rainfall, and saving them was not an option, it was an absolute necessity, he said.

The Prince said that 18 months ago he had set up his Rainforests Project in response to deep concern at the situation.

"Several proposals have been put forward," he said. "One that emerged from my Rainforests Project involves the issuance of new government-backed rainforest bonds.

"These would be offered to the investment community and could provide companies in, for example, the pensions and insurance sectors with guaranteed returns while, at the same time, making available some of the significant resources needed to help slow down deforestation."

Lord Stern, who first advised the Government on the threat of climate change, also addressed the meeting on the economics of tackling global warming. He supports using financial mechanisms, such as investment bonds, to raise money to prevent deforestation.

Prof Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, who is attending the talks, has already called for all the roofs in the world to be painted white in order to reflect the sun's rays and decrease global warming.