Prince Charles warned business leaders on Tuesday to take action against climate change or watch the world continue on a path to destruction - the latest forthright comment from the heir to the British throne.

 

Speaking at the Inclusive Capitalism conference in London, Prince Charles called on an audience of global business leaders to take tough choices over climate change and capitalism even if it made them unpopular.

 

He said the world was at the mercy of people vociferously and aggressively denying the current operating model was accelerating climate change which could destroy the world.

 

"... we can choose to act now before it is finally too late, using all of the power and influence that each of you can bring to bear to create an inclusive, sustainable and resilient society”.

 

He added: "There will, of course, be hard choices to make, and, take it from me, in the short term, you will not be popular with your peers, but if you stand firm and take the kind of action that is needed, I have every confidence the rewards will be immense."

 

He highlighted the growing plight of the world's most vulnerable people and the unprecedented environmental change that he said was undoubtedly compounded by man-made global warming and the great strain put on nature's life-support systems.

 

"These changes threaten to undermine all of the progress we have achieved, unless we can create a much more sustainable and inclusive approach," he said.

 

"If there is a price to pay for achieving the necessary transformation, it will be our abandoning of the next, seemingly easy, short-term solution that our current form of capitalism thinks is necessary and, instead, focusing on approaches that achieve lasting and meaningful returns."