The Prince of Wales has said the Queen is “alright” but added “once you get to 95, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be”.
Prince Charles was speaking to Sky News at an event in Jordan focusing on environmental issues.
In his first interview following the conclusion of the COP26 climate change summit, he said: “I mean, always the difficulty I think in these exercises is, is how do you translate commitments into real action around. So often in the past it has been a problem.
“But this time, the problem is we cannot go on mucking about any longer because the urgency as I was trying to say is so great.”
Asked about his mother, the Queen, who has been unwell in recent weeks and was unable to attend the Cenotaph on Sunday because she had sprained her back, he said: “She’s alright thank you very much.
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“Once you get to 95, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be. It’s bad enough at 73.”
Today she was seen at Windsor Castle meeting the chief of the defence staff, General Sir Nick Carter.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are carrying out their first overseas tour since the pandemic started, travelling to Jordan and Egypt over four days.
The theme of the climate crisis is central to the visit.
Explaining why, the prince said: “In this part of the world they’re so challenged on water issues and everything else.
“It’s water, food and energy are the critical areas here as they are in many areas. But what of course the investors like is the scale.
“So what we’re trying to do is look at how you can create the regional scale. So more countries together, providing real opportunities for the big investments. But not just in technology, but in nature-based solutions.
“And there are an awful lot of very ingenious ideas now, which could be brought to fruition.”
The prince during COP26 hammered home his belief that the private sector holds the key to financing potential solutions to the climate crisis.
Speaking about his sustainable markets initiative, he said: “In order to expedite this, we have to find – as I’m trying to explain – the best ways to bring the public sector and the private sector together. The private sector with all the trillions which the governments haven’t got really.
“But the governments that can do their bit I think with things like first and second loss guarantees for risk, for currency risk, and for things like that – sovereign risks – which so many companies and investors find difficult to deal with, in certain parts if we’re going to be able to speed up the transition.
“So it’s putting these things together with real multinational development banks which is critical.”