Speaking to CNN, the Prince of Wales warned people must realise the world is interconnected as he urged his viewers to care about the planet and nature. Prince Charles said: “Planet’s health and nature’s health are intimately linked to our own health.
“The more we destroy the natural world around us and the biodiversity on which we depend in its infinite variety – and the more we encourage mass extinctions of species that we don’t always realise we depend on because each of us is interconnected with the rest of nature, then we are making ourselves ever more vulnerable to all sorts of diseases and problems.
“This pandemic won’t be the last one if we’re not very careful.
“So that’s why it’s critical to heal the natural world as well as ourselves.
“This is why we can’t ignore it.”
Earlier on Monday, the Prince urged business leaders to support his ambitious Earth Charter and “bring prosperity into harmony with nature, people and planet” over the next decade.
READ MORE: Prince Charles to launch £7 BILLION environment project
Charles launched his project by telling the private sector now was the time to “seize the opportunity” offered by adopting business practices that supported or replenished the natural world.
Speaking during the One Planet Summit, he called on the industry and finance sectors to provide “practical leadership”, as they were key to mobilising the “innovation, scale and resources” needed to move the global economy towards a sustainable future.
Called Terra Carta, or Earth Charter, the initiative has parallels with the Magna Carta – the touchstone for human rights and modern democracy – and aims to lay out a “recovery plan” towards sustainability that gives fundamental rights and value to nature.
The private sector is also being urged to invest 10 billion dollars (£7.3 billion) in “natural capital” by 2022.
The heir to the throne told delegates at the summit staged in Paris: “Today, I am making an urgent appeal to leaders, from all sectors and from around the world, to join us in this endeavour, and to give their support to this Terra Carta – to bring prosperity into harmony with nature, people and planet over the coming decade.
“I can only encourage, in particular, those in industry and finance to provide practical leadership to this common project, as only they are able to mobilise the innovation, scale and resources that are required to transform our global economy.”
Charles’ Sustainable Markets Initiative – launched last year to help accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable future – created the charter and a Natural Capital Investment Alliance.
The alliance aims to encourage 10 billion dollars worth of commitments from founding Terra Carta supporters by 2022, which will be invested in companies and projects providing solutions to preserve and restore natural capital – renewable and non-renewable resources such as clean air and water and fertile soils.
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Initiatives could include reforestation or landscape restoration, as a means to reduce emissions, restore biodiversity, and boost sustainable economic growth and job creation.
Charles told the delegates, who included summit co-host French President Emmanuel Macron: “Ladies and gentlemen, a sustainable future is, in fact, the growth story of our time – but it is up to us to seize the opportunity it presents.
“It is my profound hope that the Terra Carta might help us to do just that.
“Therefore, as we look to a brighter and more sustainable future, with our promises kept, let us join forces and waste no more time. With the clock ticking, it really is up to us to make each day count.”
The launch of Charles’ project comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK will spend at least £3 billion of its international funding for climate action on efforts to protect nature over the next five years.
The move is in response to the close connection between climate and nature, which has seen 68 percent declines in populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians since 1970 and massive deforestation.
