Prince of Wales warns Copenhagen summit that planet is in crisis

Prince of Wales
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Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

The Prince of Wales has warned climate negotiators in Copenhagen that the "eyes of the world" are on them and that "our planet has reached a point of crisis", leaving only seven years before "we lose the levers of control" on the climate.

The prince was addressing ministers at the formal opening of the high-level talks. "It is no understatement to say that, with your signatures, you can write our future," he told them.

And in an apparent reference to disagreements between rich and poor nations he said that all countries needed to work together — climate change was not resolvable "in terms of 'them and us'", he said.

The prince, who has long campaigned for the survival of rainforests, said that forest protection would be key to a successful deal. "It seems the quickest and most cost-effective way to buy time in the battle against catastrophic climate change is to find a way to make the trees worth more alive than dead," he said.

But even as he spoke, plans for a revolutionary agreement to end deforestation and pay poor countries to protect their forests were hanging in the balance after leaked papers showed that a new proposed text has removed many of the scheme's safeguards.

It emerged that the negotiating text leaked to NGOs late last night showed that the language meant to cut the approximately 20% of global greenhouse gases from deforestation in developing countries — the so-called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation scheme (Redd) — has now removed all targets for ending deforestation and significantly weakened other areas.

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copenhagen, prince of wales