One Is Most Surprised: Prince Charles Targeted By The Guardian’s Fossil Fuel Campaign

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has become the latest public figure to be targeted by the Guardian’s fossil fuel divestment campaign.

The paper reported this morning that the Prince is “on the brink of eradicating all fossil fuel investments from his financial holdings”. Although he does not comment on his personal finances, Buckingham Palace has told the Financial Times that “his private investments and his charitable foundation do not have any fossil fuel holdings”.

The Prince also draws an income from his food and drink company the Duchy of Cornwall, worth £900m. A spokesman for the company told the Guardian: “The Duchy of Cornwall does not have any direct hydrocarbon investments. A review of collective investments is currently being undertaken.”

Prince Charles is well known for supporting climate change dogma, comparing the planet earth to a “sick patient” earlier this year. Speaking to the Royal Society, he said “We can only pray that our sick planetary patient might be placed on a road to recovery, in the process bringing gains for human well-being.

“Failure to write the prescription, however, might leave us contemplating the death certificate instead. So, my fervent hope is that you can find the means to make the difference that our world so desperately needs.”

Back in 2009, the Prince warned an audience in Rio de Janeiro that the world had just 100 months to act to save the world from catastrophic climate change. “The best projections tell us that we have less than one hundred months to alter our behaviour before we risk catastrophic climate change, and the unimaginable horrors that this would bring,” he said.

“Is this a risk really worth taking? What is the point of gambling away our future? Why can’t we take the wisest course and adopt the precautionary approach? So, on top of the resource demands we are making on the world, we also have to reduce our global CO2 emissions.”

The world has just two years and three months to wait until we find out whether the Prince was right or wrong.

Meanwhile, the Guardian continues to scrutinise, cajole and bully a range of public bodies into divesting from fossil fuel investments, turning its sights on the National Trust, the Church of England and the Royal Society amongst others. This despite the fact that the Guardian doesn’t actually know, nor does it appear to care, how much money it has in fossil fuel investments itself.