‘I am making an urgent appeal’: Prince Charles urges companies to sign up to ‘Earth Charter’

Charter aims to ‘bring prosperity into harmony with nature, people and planet over the coming decade,’ says Prince of Wales

The Prince of Wales has launched a new charter in order to promote sustainable practices within the private business sector.

The Terra Carta charter sets out a ten-point action plan for businesses as part of a recovery plan designed to drastically improve the carbon footprint of businesses by 2030.

Designed by  former Chief Design Officer at Apple, Sir Jony Ive, the Terra Carta comes as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative that was launched by Prince Charles in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

The Terra Carta “provides a roadmap to 2030 for businesses to move towards an ambitious and sustainable future” reads a statement about the launch, “one that will harness the power of nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector”.

The statement continues: “The Terra Carta is based on a series of recommendations developed over a year of HRH convening ‘coalitions of the willing’ among global business leaders across industries in almost every sector, challenging them to identify ways to set our planet on a fundamentally more sustainable trajectory. 

"Together, they have developed a charter of ambitious, but practical action aimed at building a truly sustainable future."

There are nearly 100 actions for business outlined in the 17-page-long Terra Carta, which has already acquired the support of leading businesses such as Bank of America, Blackrock, EY, AstraZeneca, Schroders, BP, and Heathrow Airport.

Speaking at the One Planet Summit, Prince Charles commented: “Today, I am making an urgent appeal to leaders, from all sectors and from around the world to give their support to this ‘Terra Carta’ – to bring prosperity into harmony with Nature, People and Planet over the coming decade.  

“I can only encourage, in particular, those in industry and finance to provide practical leadership to this common project, as only they are able to mobilize the innovation, scale and resources that are required to transform our global economy.”

The Prince of Wales continued: “The ‘Terra Carta' offers the basis of a recovery plan that puts Nature, People and Planet at the heart of global value creation – one that will harness the precious, irreplaceable power of Nature combined with the transformative innovation and resources of the private sector.”