Prince Charles to attend Copenhagen climate change summit

Prince of Wales invited to address UN summit and expected to lobby for measures to reduce deforestation
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 December 2009 18.26 GMT
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Prince Charles will join at least 65 world leaders in Copenhagen later this month, it was announced today.
In an unexpected move by Denmark, the prince has been invited by the host country to address the UN summit during the opening ceremony of the second "high-level" week of the conference, when political leaders arrive.
But the Prince of Wales, who will only be in the Danish capital city for four hours on 15 December, will not take part in any formal negotiations. It is understood that his role will only be to help set the "tone" of the meeting. He will also meet meet global business leaders to lobby for measures to reduce deforestation, including a carbon market.
Forestry is expected to be one of the key discussions at Copenhagen, but the negotiations are on a knife edge, with no guarantee that money will be found to pay poor countries to protect their trees.
Two years ago, Prince Charles set up the Prince's Rainforests Project and since then then he has hosted several international forestry meetings in London.
The UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, was the first national leader to pledge to attend Copenhagen, and will be joined by Brazil's president, Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva, France's Nicolas Sarkozy and others.