Asked by: Anonymous
Prince Charles has published the carbon footprint of his household every year since 2007, as part of his annual report. You can read the figures online at www.princeofwales.gov.uk.
For 2009-10, this was the equivalent of 2718 tonnes of CO2, down about 20 per cent from 2007-8. Even if you divide this by the 130 or so staff that the Prince employs, this is still roughly double the average carbon footprint for the UK. But, of course, Prince Charles isn’t an average person. More than half of the Prince’s carbon emissions come from overseas travel on official duties. Prince Charles argues that since these trips are run at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the responsibility for them lies with the Government, not with him.
Prince Charles does travel in quite a lot of luxury, though, and Camilla doesn’t like using scheduled flights, so the official duties of the Prince of Wales still generate a lot more CO2 than a similarly-sized Government trip, for example.
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