The Prince on global warming
2009-04-27 17:00
Rome - Time is quickly running out in the battle against global warming, and history will judge the world's response to the crisis, Prince Charles of Wales told Italian lawmakers on Monday.
"If we are to bequeath to our children a world that is fit to inhabit, then I fear we must act now," said Charles during a visit to Rome. "What on earth is the point of procrastinating?
"History will judge us by how we respond to climate change. Do we want our children and grandchildren to... see this as the time we allowed a new darkness to sprawl across our future?" he asked Italian lawmakers and other government leaders.
Speaking in parliament's elegant Sala della Lupa, the prince said only 98 months remained before experts predict irreversible effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and "the clock is ticking away inexorably".
Environmental refugees
"The response we make now to the challenges will be the single most critical element defining our era, and it will be the one by which our generation will be judged," he said.
"The world is struggling with the consequences of the economic crisis in which we find ourselves (but) any of the difficulties we face today will be as nothing when the full horror of global warming unfolds," Charles said.
Sea levels could rise over a meter this century, "affecting 600 million people and engulfing vast swathes of land", he said.
Extreme climate events would continue to increase, producing "literally hundreds of millions of environmental refugees trying to escape these new frightening conditions", Charles said, asking: "And where will they go?
"We are going through nature's supply so quickly that most economists accept that the era of cheap oil, coal and gas is over," he added.
The 60-year-old heir to the British throne appealed for "inspired leadership" in the lead-up to United Nations climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen in December.
"The world then will be looking... to take action before it is too late," Charles said, insisting that solutions could be found that create jobs, enhance competitiveness and improve energy security.
"We need an agreement on climate change which is truly global, which is based on trust and is equitable," he urged, adding: "Let us hope the gap between rhetoric and action continues to lessen."
Concluding in Italian, he said: "If we don't succeed... our grandchildren will never, ever forgive us."