The prince warned that climate change and biodiversity loss are the greatest threats humanity has ever faced and urged his audience of business and political leaders to embrace a radical reshaping of economies in order to tackle the crisis.
He proposed a 10-point plan for a sustainable economy:
- Put nature and the protection of nature’s capital at the heart of operations.
- Create responsible pathways to decarbonize to reach net zero, and for governments and businesses to set a clear plan for how they will decarbonize.
- Reimagine industries through the lens of sustainable markets.
- Identify game-changing technologies that can speed up the creation of a sustainable economy and eliminate barriers to change.
- Remove subsidies that prevent the economy becoming more sustainable, and set taxes, policies and regulations in a way that catalyzes sustainable markets.
- Invest in science, technology, engineering and math skills, and in research and development, to help bring emerging technologies to market.
- Invest in nature as an economic driver of growth.
- Agree unified metrics for measuring environmental, social and governance standards, to provide transparency to company’s supply chains.
- Make it easier for consumers to see which products are ethical and sustainable.
- Realign investing so it can support sustainability. This would direct trillions of pounds in pension funds, sovereign wealth funds into environmentally responsible projects that offer long-term value and rate of return.
His 10 points are just good sense. Of course this is the kind of economy we should be moving rapidly toward. But we aren't. Will we? The prince posed a question: "Do we want to go down in history as the people who did nothing to bring the world back from the brink in time to restore the balance, when we could have done?" Unfortunately we are currently aiming at the wrong answer.
2 comments:
Here's something to consider: I get news from a lot of sources, but the first I've heard of the substance of Prince Charles' speech was in this blog, which I saw via http://progressivebloggers.ca/ Now, why was that?
There was a good story in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/22/reshape-economy-to-fight-climate-crisis-charles-tells-davos?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVS19XZWVrZGF5cy0yMDAxMjM%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK
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