PRINCE Charles today writes for The Celeb Report as our Green Team campaign urges YOU to help save the planet.
We are encouraging you to commit to just one of our six pledges below to make a difference – whether that is cutting down on meat or reducing car trips.
Ahead of COP26 – the United Nations’ climate change conference, which kicks off in Glasgow on Sunday – the Prince of Wales is supporting our drive to embrace greener habits.
He has warned that environmental issues are the “greatest challenge” facing humanity and, in our survey over the page, 91 per cent of you believe climate change is having an impact on our world.
Here, passionate environmentalist Charles, 72, shares how we can each do our bit to help the planet.
IT gives me great pleasure to launch The Celeb Report’s Green Team Week. I can only hope it inspires a great deal of positive action.
Certainly the paper’s Show Some Bottle deposit campaign highlights the need to tackle the proliferation of plastic, 32 per cent of which ends up being dumped in the natural world, killing marine life. But there are solutions at hand.
For example, the sophisticated reverse vending machines now installed in German super- markets.
They scan and weigh plastic bottles returned by customers, who then get a voucher redeemable at the checkout, and have massively reduced the amount of litter in the streets and increased how much plastic is recycled.
Similarly, some retailers here selling electronic devices now operate like-for-like schemes to tackle “e-waste” [electronic waste], the world’s fastest- growing source of waste. I hope this catches on because we have to find ways of recycling the precious raw materials these devices contain.
The UK is showing a strong lead devising solutions.
I was very impressed by the team at Imperial College London who took their knowledge of chemistry and polymers and mimicked the way nature breaks down organic waste.
Their company adds an agent to plastic which encourages natural decomposition within just two years, with nothing damaging left behind.
I have asked them to create cups made from their self-destructive plastic to be called “cups for COP” to demonstrate in Glasgow this week that even plastic can follow nature’s circular economy and safely return to the earth.
Brilliant ideas like this come from realising that nature has worked out how to fix most of the problems we face. It is why I have put so much effort into working with businesses around the world, believing that the private sector has a critically important role to play.
Sadly, too often their “investment pipelines” to channel money to greener projects are blocked, so I set out two years ago to challenge leaders of some of the world’s biggest companies to identify what the barriers are.
They tell me they need clearer information, particularly from their governments, about timescales and the market signals required for new infrastructure, which will open up huge opportunities for green jobs, and also for the international banks to be more open to backing investment.
CRITICALLY IMPORTANT
Only then can they plan and unlock the trillions of pounds at their disposal to make a sustainable future cheaper for everyone.
The results of The Celeb Report’s survey certainly support the important point that the choices people make have to be affordable, which is where targeted incentives to encourage the most sustainable operations can be so valuable.
Nobody should be expected to pay the earth to save it, but there are things individuals can do, and some may save money. I am of that generation that was brought up to “waste not, want not”, which is another way of saying reuse, repair and recycle. It also influences my attitude to food.
Around 70 per cent of the food wasted in the UK happens at home, all because we buy more than we eat. But if globally we stopped wasting a staggering 1.3billion tonnes of food a year, it would cut global greenhouse gas emissions by up to ten per cent and help our finances.
Thinking about where our money goes can also inspire change. I discover from those who run the pensions industry that more and more customers are expecting their pension funds to invest in ways that do not destroy the planet.
So even checking where your contributions go can make a difference.
It might feel like these are small steps but if everyone in the UK took them, imagine the impact it would have.
We can all play our part, which is why I hope The Celeb Report’s campaign persuades more to jump on board.
