LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Charles will host a meeting of bosses from some of the world’s leading companies on Thursday as part of his campaign to promote a sustainable economic future and ahead of their meeting with G7 leaders, his office said.
Charles, who has spent much of his life campaigning for business and governments to take more notice of environmental issues, will meet chief executives from Bank of America, AstraZeneca, HSBC, NatWest and Heathrow Airport among others.
“We have a potentially game-changing opportunity to drive forward the partnerships between government, business and private sector finance that are absolutely vital if we are to win the battle to combat climate change and biodiversity loss,” Charles is expected to tell them according to his office.
“Unless we deploy private sector resource, innovation and finance more effectively, we just don’t stand a chance.”
Those attending the event at St James’s Palace in central London will be representatives of more than 300 global business leaders who have signed up to a ‘Coalition of the Willing’, pulled together by the prince as part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative which launched last year.
Also joining the meeting will be John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy, and Britain’s COP26 President Alok Sharma.
It comes a day before the chief executives hold their first official face-to-face meeting with G7 leaders, who are gathering in Cornwall, southwest England, with a focus on building a sustainable future, the prince’s office said.
At that meeting, business leaders will put forward three initiatives to help accelerate investment in low-carbon, sustainable projects, and promote innovative schemes to help meet climate change goals.
“The private sector has a vital role to play in accelerating the shift to clean, green technology and creating the jobs of the future, and I’m delighted to see so many major companies coming together under the Prince of Wales’ initiative to support that endeavour,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
