Prince Charles speaks in glowing terms about India's solar power

London - He also said that India’s young and vibrant entrepreneurs will play a vital part in driving it forward.

Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, spoke in glowing terms about India’s renewable energy, especially solar power, and said that the country had a massive role to play towards a sustainable future.

“I know for instance that renewable energy, particularly solar power, is rapidly gaining ground in India and is an excellent example to the rest of the world,” Prince Charles said during a special address at the India Global Forum on Wednesday.

The 72-year-old, who launched the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) in January last year, spoke on the topic ‘Climate Action — Envisioning and Financing Our Future,’ on day one of the two-day hybrid conference, taking place in London.

“With India’s global reach and robust private sector, I believe that we will be able to accelerate our efforts and build a more sustainable future.

Prince Charles also said that India’s young and vibrant entrepreneurs will play a vital part in driving it forward.

“With India being a global centre for technology and innovation, combined with a deep connection to nature and harmony, you have an absolutely vital role to play in this effort, particularly, if I may say so, in view of India’s wealth of young entrepreneurial talent, who will be utterly critical to finding solutions to the greatest of our challenges,” he said.

“This work will be further developed in the lead-up to the G20 COP26, where I know India and its private sector will perform an essential part. So, I can only hope and pray that you would join me in advancing this very important collective endeavour and also bearing in mind the enormous added value and influence of many more companies singing through the hymn sheet, that you would consider joining the Sustainable Markets Initiative India Council,” Prince Charles added.

Prince Charles also felt that with agriculture being a pivotal wheel in India’s growing economy, we must look to adopt global farm metrics.

"To accelerate and transform global agriculture and food systems in a more sustainable direction, we must look to adopt a clear set of global farm metrics that will better enable investors and consumers to understand the relative sustainability of agricultural products and supply chains,” he opined.

“With agriculture being so critical to the Indian economy, there is a real opportunity to explore how such metrics could support the lives and livelihoods of farmers in India as well as wider supply chains and markets,” Prince Charles added.

Prince Charles said that SMI was set up to transition to a zero-carbon future.

“With the lives and livelihoods of present and future generations in mind, I set up the Sustainable Markets Initiative in January 2020 to bring together CEOs in almost every sector, with the express aim of identifying obstacles to progress along with game-changing ways to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon future. In January this year, I launched the Terra Carta as the mandate of my Sustainable Markets Initiative and the basis of a recovery plan for nature, people and planet,” he said.

As we look to transition, we must explore, as a matter of real urgency, the potential of carbon capture used in storage to address current and legacy carbon in our atmosphere, without which we will simply never buy enough time to prevent irreversible climate change,” added Prince Charles.

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