Charles challenges 2050 target to cut carbon emissions

The Prince of Wales has called for global commitments to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to be brought forward – as the target “suggests we have room to delay”.

Charles’ comment, made in a speech to launch Climate Week, is at odds with the Government’s plan to cut carbon emissions to net zero within 30 years.

Speaking via a recorded message from Birkhall in the grounds of Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, the prince also called for a financial recovery package, like the Marshall Plan that rebuilt post-war Europe, to help “nature, people and planet”.

The heir to the throne, who has been an environmental campaigner since the early 1970s, said: “With the planetary emergency so critical – with the permafrost melting in Siberia for instance, producing dire effects on global warming, and with the Pantanal in Brazil being consumed by unprecedented numbers of fires – we can no longer go on like this, as if there was no tomorrow and no ultimate reckoning for our abuse of nature.

“So what do we do? Without doubt we must now put ourselves on a war-like footing, approaching our action from the perspective of a military-style campaign. That way, working together, we can combat this most grave and urgent challenge.

“If we have the resolve to shift our trajectory, we must start now by bringing forward our net zero target – I am afraid 2050 simply suggests we have room to delay.”

A key UN report from 2018 said to keep temperatures from rising to more than 1.5C (2.7F) in the long-term, countries needed to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, with steep cuts in other greenhouse gases such as methane.

The Committee on Climate Change, an independent body of climate advisers, recommended last year the UK pursue this target.

Dozens of nations have indicated they will follow the same course but only a handful, like France, Denmark, New Zealand and the UK, have enshrined the commitment in law while Sweden has gone further and adopted 2045.