The Prince of Wales has issued an urgent call to end environmental destruction and to “make peace with nature”.
“We are living at odds with the natural world – and it is buckling under the pressure of our actions,” he said, in a video message played at a Campaign for Nature event at the General Assembly of the United Nations, in New York.
Prince William said climate change and the prospect of a million species facing extinction represented the most pressing “existential threat”.
His speech followed the announcement of the finalists for the fourth year of the prince’s Earthshot awards for international ideas to improve sustainability.
“If we are to keep this planet liveable for our children and grandchildren, we must act urgently,” the prince said, in a speech that had echoes of the eco-campaigning of his father, King Charles III.
“We can and must change our relationship with the natural world.”
Such a reset in the relationship would mean economic changes, “realigning financial flows from destruction to regeneration”.
“It means change,” the prince said, calling on international leaders “to halt the unsustainable production and consumption of natural resources”.
“We must act to save our rivers, oceans, savannas, mangroves and forests, as well as the communities that protect and live alongside them,” he said.
