Globalisation:IBLF People

HRH Prince fo Wales

“When I started the International Business Leaders Forum some 14 years ago, I felt that the rapid political and economic changes that the world experienced in the late 1980s could lead all too easily to unsustainable growth and dangerous instability.

I also felt that international business could be a force for good, if it was guided by a longer-term vision for sustainability and responsible behaviour. Most importantly, it needed to be guided through partnerships focussed on practical action to develop opportunities in local communities.”''

Rainforest Project

The Prince has set up his own Rainforests Project with the support of 12 major companies - including IBLF corporate partners Shell, Rio Tinto, Morgan Stanley and KPMG - international organisations, such as the World Bank and the European Union, and representatives from Rainforest Countries, to find just such a solution. [27]

Anti-Wind turbine

The Prince of Wales believes that wind farms are a "horrendous blot on the landscape" and that their spread must be halted before they irreparably ruin some of Britain's most beautiful countryside. a friend of Prince Charles said: "This is a difficult issue for the Prince because he is in favour of renewable energy and is concerned by the effects of global warming. But he believes that wind farms are 'a horrendous blot on the landscape'. He thinks that if they have to be built at all they should be constructed well out at sea."

Stephen Timms, the energy minister, has said: "Wind energy is here and now. It is the most proven green source of electricity generation and can supply a rising proportion of our electricity needs."

Prince Charles's annual income of almost £12 million comes from the Duchy of Cornwall. The estate consists of 126,000 acres, much of it suitable for wind farms in Devon and Cornwall, but internal Clarence House documents seen by The Telegraph show that he will not consider having them on his land, or be associated with them whatsoever.

The nearest wind farm to the Prince's country home at Highgrove, Gloucestershire, is seven miles away. The Prince chooses to spend much of the summer on the Balmoral estate in Scotland which is owned by the Queen. The nearest wind farm to Balmoral is at Novar, 65 miles away. [28]