Prince Charles, 72, gave a mini-heart attack to viewers when he nearly fell over to the stage for his opening speech during the Cop26 Climate Summit in Glasgow.
Live TV cameras captured the moment Prince Charles nearly tripped as he goes from his seat to the stage.
According to the several videos, the heir to the throne brushed off the close call and quickly regained his composure, and started speaking in front of hundreds of delegates from around the world.
During his major speech, Prince Charles argued that a ‘vast military-style campaign’ is needed to address the environmental problems that the world is facing.
The 72-year-old Royal, who has dedicated a large part of his life to raising awareness about the growing crisis, has urged world leaders to team up with the private sector to ‘systematically engage’ and tackle environmental problems.
Prince Charles added that this would allow them to access ‘trillions’ that are at the disposal of big businesses.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us just how devastating a global cross-border threat can be,” Prince Charles said.
“Climate change and biodiversity loss are no different,” he added. “In fact, they pose an even greater existential threat, to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing.”
He then told world leaders that the ‘eyes of the world’ are on them as time has ‘quite literally run out.’
Prince Charles also said that the scale and scope of the threat are calling for a global solution.
“We know this will take trillions, not billions, of dollars,” Prince Charles said. “We also know that countries, many of whom are burdened by growing levels of debt, simply cannot afford to go green.”
“Here, we need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector,” the prince explained.
“With trillions at its disposal – far beyond global GDP and, with the greatest respect, beyond even the governments of the world’s leaders – it offers the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.”
On Sunday, Prince Charles also gave a speech in Rome to leaders at the G20 summit.
In his speech, the prince described Cop26 as ‘the last-chance saloon, as he called for ‘fine words’ to be converted into ‘still finer actions’.
Prince Charles told the leaders in attendance that the private sector is eager to work with them and ‘ready to play a hugely significant and game-changing role’.
Adding that solutions to major problems ‘seem possible only if there is a much closer partnership between Government, the main multilateral banks, the private sector, and its investors’.
Prince Charles also said that, after many years of his own efforts in discussing environmental issues, ‘I am at last sensing a change in attitudes and the build-up of positive momentum’.