Prince Charles: Catching coronavirus made me more determined to reset the planet

Prince Charles says it's time to "reset" the planet after the Covid-19 crisis. Photo / Getty Images

The Prince of Wales has said his own battle with coronavirus left him "even more determined to push and shout and prod" to rebuild the planet, as he launches a five-point plan to avoid future disasters.

The Prince, who has launched the "Great Reset" agenda alongside business leaders, warned that the world risks "more and more" pandemics unless it recovers from Covid-19 in a way that placed the environment first.

Calling on the private sector to lead the way, he said there is now a " unique, but rapidly shrinking window of opportunity to learn lessons and reset ourselves on a more sustainable path".

In a speech delivered to an online conference with the World Economic Forum, the Prince warned: "Unless we take the action necessary and build again in a greener, more sustainable, more inclusive way, then we will end up having more and more pandemics and more disasters from ever-accelerating global warming and climate change."

He also spoke of how his own brush with Covid-19, which saw him suffer a mild version of the illness and isolate at Birkhall, Scotland, had reinvigorated his drive to work for "harmony" between man and nature.

Speaking to Sky News about the "great reset", he said: "It makes me even more determined to push and shout and prod. I was lucky in my case and got away with it quite lightly.

"But I've had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through.

"I feel particularly for those who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That to me is the most ghastly thing.

"But in order to prevent this happening to so many more people, I'm so determined to find a way out of this."

In a five-point plan issued during his speech, the Prince said those involved must first "capture the imagination and will of humanity" to change, then use the global economic recovery to "set us on a new trajectory of sustainable employment, of livelihoods and economic growth".

Referring to carbon emissions, he said they must then "redesign systems and pathways to advance Net Zero transitions globally" and "reinvigorate science, technology and innovation" to find solutions.

Fifthly, he said, "we must rebalance investment", with the private sector at the "heart of the key to how we do this in a better and more sustainable way".

The Prince said: "We have a golden opportunity to seize something good from this crisis.

"Its unprecedented shock waves 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."

He added: "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."

An interview with the Prince of Wales will be broadcast on Sky News's After The Pandemic: Our New World, broadcast on Thursday night.