Prince admits environmental cost of green speech

The Prince of Wales made a speech to the tourist industry on how it will have to make efforts on an “heroic scale” to minimise the impact of travel on the environment – only 24 hours after his own ten-day tour of the Far East was announced.

When Clarence House was asked to justify the trip to Japan, Brunei and Indonesia – which will include a lecture by the Prince in Jakarta on climate change – it said that the trip was regarded by the Government as vital for cementing British relations in the Far East.
Last year the Prince was criticised by David Miliband, then the Environment Secretary, for flying to New York to collect an environmental award.
The Prince acknowledged that he had enjoyed extensive travel, and that such tourism came at a price.
He said: “As the number of travellers increases dramatically . . . the efforts which have to be taken by the travel and tourism business to minimise those impacts needs to be on a heroic scale.” He applauded the initiatives taken already by the travel and tourism industry.