PRINCE Charles turned down a protest with Greta Thunberg and thousands of others climate warriors yesterday – as he pleaded with chiefs to save the planet for his grandchildren.
The King-to-be ended a packed week of events in Glasgow by hauling in negotiators from around the world to another glitzy reception at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.
He revealed he’d been invited to protest on the streets with activists, but said it would be “difficult” to do so.
Up to 20,000 young eco activists marched through the city centre yesterday demanding leaders deliver on their promises to tackle climate change.
And Prince Charles told top deal-brokers that he feared his grandchildren George, Charlotte and Louis would be furious with him if he failed to act to secure their future.
As chiefs stopped to take progress after a week of crunch talks at the COP26 gathering, he told them: “The whole weight of history rests on you this time round.
“There is a lot of anger and frustration out there.
“There’s a big march tomorrow, which some people have said I should join, but that’s more difficult.
“The point is, please don’t forget these people out there, don’t forget that it is their future, I promise you, that you hold in your hands.”
He blasted generations of leaders who have failed to take action “until far too late in the day.”
And he said: “We haven’t paid enough attention for so long, and we’ve fallen so far behind that we have an enormous task to catch up on.”
Staring the negotiators in the eye he said: “One of the things that motivated me more than anything else is that I didn’t want to be accused by my grandchildren or children of not doing the things that needed doing at the time.”
Meanwhile former Vice President Al Gore praised the strikers, as he vowed the world is at a “long-awaited political tipping point”.
But he warned the climate crisis is getting worse “faster than we are yet implementing solutions”, as he said more political will is needed to tackle the problem.
Today the UK joins 45 governments in a fresh vow to protect nature and try to keep the vital 1.5 degrees C warming goal alive to mark nature day at the summit.
Ministers announced a fresh £500million boost to protect five million hectares of tropical rainforests and create thousands of green jobs across Africa, Asia and Latin America – the equivalent to around 3.5million football pitches.
Around one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, forestry and other land-use.
And the CEOs of Co-Op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose vowed to speed up their commitments to put eco-friendly labels on food and make sure as much packaging as possible is biodegradable or fully recyclable.
And fresh stats revealed that three in four Brits are worried about climate change thanks to doom and gloom narrative.
And young people are growing up feeling the most anxious about the state of the planet as world teams try to agree a Glasgow deal to save it, the ONS said.
Teen preacher Greta told crowds last night: “The leaders are doing nothing” as she lashed out at the progress made during the weeks conference so far.
COP26 has been a “global greenwash festival”, a “failure” and a “PR exercise”.
She added: “A two-week long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah.”
