Prince Charles joins Bill Gates, Justin Trudeau and Zac Goldsmith for drinks reception on day three of the COP26 summit in Glasgow
- Prince Charles joined Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tonight
- Leaders and delegates appeared in high spirits at they attended evening gathering at Scottish Event Campus
- Also joining Charles for evening was former US Vice President Al Gore, Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith
Prince Charles joined US businessman Bill Gates and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a reception for world leaders on day three of the COP26 summit tonight.
The Prince of Wales, 72, appeared in high spirits as he spoke with the congregation of delegates and leaders at an evening gathering inside Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus (SEC).
Also joining the future king for the reception was former US Vice President Al Gore, Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
The evening reception comes after the royal used his COP26 address to demand a ‘military-style campaign’ to mobilise trillions of dollars of private sector cash to ‘save our precious planet’.
The Duke of Cornwall said the pandemic had taught the world ‘timelines can be sped up dramatically’ when everyone ‘agrees on the urgency and the direction’.
He said top CEOs and businesses he had spoken to confirmed they were ready to do their part to protect the globe from climate change.
Prince Charles, 72, speaks with US businessman Bill Gates and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a reception for world leaders inside Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus (SEC)
The Prince of Wales was joined by Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng for the evening
During the evening the congregation of representatives and leaders listened to a speech by Environment minister Zac Goldsmith
During the evening reception tonight leaders were listened to a speech by Environment minister Zac Goldsmith who this week described how saving the world’s forests would be one of the cornerstone achievements of the Cop26 climate summit.
The scenes come after Prince Charles, who joined Prince William and Kate Middleton for a lavish royal reception at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum last night, issued a rallying call to nations in the fight against climate change.
In his speech on Monday the royal said: ‘So ladies and gentlemen, my plea today is for countries to come together to create the environment that enables every sector of industry to take the action required.
‘We know this will take trillions, not billions of dollars. We also know that countries, many which are burdened by heavy levels of debt, simply cannot afford to go green.
‘Here we need a vast, military style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector.
‘With trillions at its disposal, far beyond global GDP and with the greatest respects beyond even the government’s of the world’s leaders it offers the only real prospect of achieving a fundamental economic transition.
‘So how do we do it? First how do we get the private sector all pulling in the same direction?
‘After nearly two years now of consultation, CEOs have told me we need to bring together global industries to map out in very practical terms what it will take to make the transition.
‘We know from the pandemic the private sector can speed up timelines dramatically when everyone agrees on the urgency and the direction.
‘So each sector needs a clear strategy of getting innovations to mark it. Second, who pays and how?
‘We need to align private investment behind these industry strategies to help finance the transition effort, which means building the confidence of investors so the financial risk is reduced.
‘Investment is needed to transfer from coal to clean energy. If we can develop a pipeline of more sustainable and bankable projects at a sufficient scale it will attract sufficient investment.
‘Third which switches do we flick to enable these objectives? More than 300 of the world’s leading CEOs and and investors have told me that along side the promises countries have made… they need clear market signals, agreed globally so they have the confidence to invest without the goalposts suddenly moving.
‘This is the framework I’ve offered on a Terracarter roadmap created by my stable markets initiative with nearly 100 specific actions for acceleration.
‘Together we’re working to drive trillions of dollars into support transition across ten of the most emitting and polluting industries.
‘They include energy, agriculture, transportation, health systems and fashion. The reality of today’s global supply chains means industry transition will effect every country and every producer in the world.
‘There is absolutely not doubt in my mind that the private sector is ready to play its part and to work with governments to find a way forward.’
The future king, who used his COP26 address to demand a ‘military-style campaign’ to mobilise trillions of dollars of private sector cash to ‘save our precious planet’, spoke with former US Vice President Al Gore during the night
The royal appeared in high spirits as he spoke with world leaders and delegates at the reception on day three of the COP26 summit
Today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed he and the Microsoft founder Bill Gates had agreed to spend £400million to try and solve problems of low carbon aviation
The Prince also said the world has been put on ‘war footing’ due to the impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity.
He continued: ‘The pandemic has shown us just how devastating a global cross border threat can be.
‘Climate change and biodiversity loss are no different. in fact they pose an even greater existential threat.’
He went on: ‘To the extent we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing.
‘Having the opportunity of consulting many of you myself over these past few months I know you all carry a heavy burden on your shoulders and you do not need me to tell you that the eyes and hopes of the world are upon you to act decisively because time has literally run out.’
Earlier today, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was seen mingling with world leaders including the Prime Minister of India at a ‘clean technology’ event at the Cop26 climate summit.
The US businessman-turned-philanthropist met with Narendra Modi, Israeli premier Naftali Bennett, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today and yesterday, during the UN-run conference in Glasgow.
He also met President Joe Biden on the sidelines, and could be seen grinning as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that the pair had agreed to spend £400million in a bid to solve the ‘problems of low-carbon aviation’ during the Accelerating Clean Energy Innovation and Deployment event this afternoon.
It came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed he and the Microsoft founder had agreed to spend £400million to try and solve problems of low carbon aviation.
He said: ‘Bill Gates and I agreed jointly to spend £400 million trying to solve problems of low carbon aviation, zero guilt free aviation and we’ve got to fix it.
‘I’m going to be flying in a plane quite soon I think that has 35 per cent sustainable aviation fuel, the target at the moment is to get to 10 per cent sustainable aviation fuel for the whole world by 2030, how pathetic is that?
‘We can do better than that folks. It was 100 years ago that Alcock and Brown flew the Atlantic for the first time with about 865 imperial gallons of petrol.
‘We’ve made virtually no progress technologically since then in our approach since sending a plane up over the Atlantic.
‘I want to see Alok, never mind Alcock, I want to see Alok as the skipper of the next net zero plane that will not rely on fossil fuels at all and I think we should be far far more ambitious.’
Last night world leaders including Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau engaged in a spot of dinner-time diplomacy as they joined hundreds for the biggest gathering of Government representatives since the birth of the United Nations.
World leaders pose for a group photo during an evening reception to mark the opening day of the COP26 summit in Glasgow on Monday
Boris Johnson, who hosted the event at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, hailed Prince Charles for his efforts in tackling climate change
Prime Minister Boris Johnson greets Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as they arrive for an evening reception to mark the opening day of the COP26 on Monday
The congregation of leaders appeared in high spirits as they put disagreements on hold and capped off the first day at the COP26 climate conference with a lavish royal reception at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum with Prince Charles, Prince William, Kate Middleton and the Duchess of Cornwall.
During the night the Prime Minister, who hosted the evening at the recently renovated gallery, told leaders the summit was ‘quite an extraordinary historic event’ and it was even more important because ‘we face nothing less than a mortal threat to our planet and to our civilisation’.
He also hailed Prince Charles as ‘the man to defuse the bomb at the world’s moment of danger’ and described him as a ‘prophet without honour’.
The lavish reception was opened by the Queen who urged world leaders to ‘earn a place in history’ and ‘answer the call of those future generations’ in an impassioned speech.
Her Majesty, 95, who was forced to miss the conference after her overnight stay in hospital last month, told leaders via video ‘to rise above the politics of the moment, and achieve true statesmanship’ as Government representatives attended the reception for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference.
She went on to say that ‘none of us will live forever’ and ‘we are doing this not for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children, and those who will follow in their footsteps’ as she urged leaders to reach decisive COP climate change deals.
In her most personal speech to date, the monarch also paid tribute to Prince Philip and described how ‘the impact of the environment on human progress’ was a subject close to the heart of her ‘dear late husband’ – who in 1969 told a gathering: ‘If we fail to cope with this challenge, all the other problems will pale into insignificance.’
Earthshot Prize finalist, 15, who received praise for her solar-powered ironing cart calls on COP26 leaders to ‘stop talking and start doing’
A schoolgirl inventor, who the Duke of Cambridge said ‘puts us all to shame’, has called on COP26 to ‘stop talking and start doing’.
Vinisha Umashankar was a finalist in Prince William’s Earthshot Prize and received praise for her solar-powered ironing cart, which aims to replace air-polluting charcoal clothes presses used by street vendors in her homeland India.
At a gathering of world leaders including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden, the 15-year-old entrepreneur said: ‘Please don’t back an economy built on fossil fuels, smoke and pollution.
‘Please stop debating the old debates! We need a new vision for a new future.’
Vinisha Umashankar, 15, was a finalist in Prince William’s Earthshot Prize and received praise for her solar-powered ironing cart
Later at a reception where the Earthshot Prize finalists and winners were introduced to the world leaders, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry offered the rising green inventor support.
The duke introduced Ms Umashankar and her follow finalists and winners to the delegates just a few weeks after prizes of £1 million were awarded to the winners to develop their innovative solutions to help repair the planet.
He called on the leaders ‘to create the conditions in which they can thrive, and their ideas can scale’.
During the day, Prince William sat down for talks with billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and discussed the Earthshot Prize and scaling up the solutions of the winners and finalists.
The schoolgirl received a standing ovation after her speech which emphasised how she represented the generation which had much to lose.
She said: ‘The point is that me and my generation will live to see the consequences of your actions today. Yet none of what we discuss today is practical for me.
Prince William praised the 15-year-old saying her innovation was ‘just one of her many inventions’, adding her hard work ‘puts us all to shame’
‘You are deciding whether or not we’ve a chance to live in a habitable world. You are deciding whether or not we are worth fighting for; worth supporting and worth caring.’
Hammering home her message for the global heads of government to take action before it is too late, she added: ‘Many of my generation are angry at leaders who’ve made empty promises and failed to deliver.
‘We’ve every reason to be angry. But I’ve no time for anger. I want to act. I’m not just a girl from India. I’m a girl from Earth. I’m very proud to be so. I’m a student, innovator, environmentalist and entrepreneur but most importantly, an optimist.’
The teenager’s solar-powered invention can power an iron for six hours from five hours of sunshine and it eliminates the 11 pounds of charcoal used daily by vendors, cutting pollution.
Prince William praised the 15-year-old saying her innovation was ‘just one of her many inventions’, adding her hard work ‘puts us all to shame’.
Praising their ‘amazing ingenuity’, the Duke warned the audience, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates: ‘Our finalists are bursting with energy, ideas and ambition, so please expect many of them to come knocking on your doors!’
Before finishing, the schoolgirl said: ‘I invite you to stand with us. We hope that you would give up the old thinking, old ways and old habits. We extend our hands to you.
‘But let me be clear! We won’t wait for you to act. We will lead even if you don’t. We will act even if you delay.’
The Duke of Cambridge ended his day by tweeting praise for the teenager as he travelled by scheduled train back home, and signed the post with his initial: ‘Feeling optimistic as I head home from £COP26 having met our Earthshot Prize Winners & Finalists and discussed their solutions to repair our planet.
‘Especially proud to see Vinisha speaking in front of the world, demanding change so that her generation can have a better future. W’
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