'The time to act is now': Prince Charles urges businesses to see coronavirus pandemic as a 'golden opportunity' as he launches 'Great Reset project' to help industries 'rebuild' in a sustainable way

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The Prince of Wales has urged businesses to seize the 'golden opportunity' of the coronavirus pandemic to rebuild in a sustainable and green way as he launched The Great Reset Project. 

Prince Charles, 71, who is currently isolating at his Aberdeenshire home of Birkhall, joined the World Economic Forum's virtual Covid Action Platform meeting to unveil the initiative, which is designed to ensure businesses 'build back better' as they begin to recover from the crisis.

The prince, who has been championing environmental causes for decades, stressed the need not to miss the chance for a green recovery and a more sustainable future, urging people to 'think big and act now'.

Speaking from his home in Scotland,  Prince Charles said: 'We have a golden opportunity to seize something good from this crisis.'

The Prince of Wales, 71, has urged businesses to seize the 'golden opportunity' of the coronavirus pandemic to rebuild in a sustainable and green way as he launched The Great Reset Project

'Its unprecedented shockwaves may well make people more receptive to big visions of change, and global crises like pandemics and climate change know no borders, and highlight just how interdependent we are as one people sharing one planet.

'Over the past month or so, despite the ongoing crisis, I've been encouraged to see the growing calls for a green recovery.'

He added: 'As we move from rescue to recovery, therefore, we have a unique but rapidly shrinking window of opportunity to learn lessons and reset ourselves on a more sustainable path.

'It is an opportunity we have never had before and may never have again.

The royal encouraged industries to relaunch in a sustainable way and 'reset' in a voiceover for a short film which accompanied the launch of the project 

'So we must use all the levers we have at our disposal, knowing that each and every one of us has a vital role to play.'

In a video, which was shared across Clarence House's Instagram pages, a voiceover said: 'The current global crisis has disturbed every aspect of our lives.

'But it has also presented us with an extraordinary opportunity to reset and improve the state of our world.' 

The short film also featured clips of Prince Charles speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, where the royal delivered the Key Note speech.

The Prince of Wales, who has long warned about the dangers of climate change, said the crisis had offered  'a unique window of opportunities to reset on a more sustainable path'

Clarence House said The Great Reset has been designed as 'an urgent call to action with a vision to reimagine, rebuild, redesign, reinvigorate and rebalance the world' and will serve as a global hub for 'thought leadership and practical solutions'.

Charles continued: 'Everything I've tried to do over the past 50 years has been done with our children and grandchildren in mind.

'So I can only encourage us all to think big and act now.'

Prince Charles has long championed environmental causes and warned about the dangers of climate change.  

In 1970, he had warned about the problems of plastic waste, chemicals being discharged into rivers and air pollution caused by factories, cars and planes. 

Prince Charles has long championed environmental causes and has been vocal about the dangers of climate change (pictured, a young Charles admiring the rain forest at the Korup National Park on the last day of his visit to Cameroon in 1990)

Since his speech on February 19, 1970, to the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales, Charles has worked to develop solutions to climate change and highlighted issues like overfishing and the threat to the world's rainforests. 

Earlier this year, Prince Charles launched his Sustainable Markets Initiative at Davos, which calls on communities, businesses, investors and consumers to take the urgent and practical steps required to transition to more sustainable practices. 

The initiative aims to bring together leading individuals from the public and private sectors, charitable bodies and investors to identify ways to rapidly decarbonise the global economy. 

In his first keynote speech to the conference in 30 years, hailed by environmentalists as a landmark moment and branded royal meddling in global affairs by critics, he said: 'Global warning, climate change and the devastating loss of biodiversity are the greatest threats humanity has ever faced, and one largely of its own creation'. 

In January of this year, the royal met with climate change activist Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum

He added: 'Now it is time to take it to the next level. In order to secure our future and to prosper we need to evolve our economic model'.

The royal also met with climate change activist Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum. 

Speaking in February, on the 50th anniversary of his historic speech, Prince Charles warned that humans have just ten years left to save the planet.

'We really do have to pull our fingers out now because the theory is we have got this decade left,' he declared.

The royal has long-been a passionate advocate for wildlife across the world and recently warned humans have just 10 years left to save the planet (pictured, last year in his own garden at Highgrove)