Prince Charles Promotes Eco-Agenda in South America

The Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, are on a visit to South America this week. They arrived in Chile Sunday, and spent Monday doing official appearances. The royal couple will move on the other countries in the region later this week.

But Prince Charles’ main reason to be in South America is to push for environmental awareness.

He has a speech to be delivered on Thursday in Brazil, in which he will urge people to “think green” and that being environmentally conscious can be good for the economy too.

Prince Charles is to argue in this speech that we have only “100 months left” to act to save the planet, according to excerpts given in advance to British media.

Monday saw Charles and Camilla visit the launch of a national energy efficiency campaign.

On Tuesday, the royal couple will attend a reception aboard a navy frigate recently acquired by Britain in the port of Valparaiso and visit a biofuels plant and a vineyard to speak with a group of organic producers and farmers.

The Brazil leg, starting late Wednesday, will concentrate on tropical deforestation issues.

On Friday, the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall will head to the Amazon to see in person the world’s biggest rainforest, and to meet a tribe living there.

Prince Charles will wrap up the 10-day tour with a trip to the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador.

Climate change “is one of the UK government’s highest foreign policy priorities in 2009,” the British embassy in Brazil said in a statement announcing Prince Charles’s visit.