LONDON – Putting his money where his environmentalist mouth is, Prince Charles is swapping gas-guzzling private planes and helicopters for commercial flights, train journeys and biodiesel cars.
A longtime champion of green causes, the heir to the throne says action is needed now to avoid leaving a ruined planet to the next generation.
“From February, we are going to look at the diary and see what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint,” a spokeswoman for the prince’s London residence, Clarence House, said Thursday on condition of anonymity in line with royal rules. “Wherever possible, we will be making less use of helicopters and chartered planes and rely more on car journeys, scheduled flights and trains.”
The prince is also having his Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles converted to run on 100 percent biodiesel and is converting to the use of electricity from sustainable sources at his London and country homes, the spokeswoman said.
Energy-efficient boilers that burn wood chips are being installed at his country homes at Highgrove in southern England – where he farms organically – and at Birkhall in Scotland.
For the first time, the prince’s annual accounts published next summer will include details of his household’s carbon emissions and set targets to reduce them.
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