The Prince of Wales holds a Roundtable meeting with Asian Commonwealth leaders

Published 28 May 2021

On Monday 24th May 2021, The Prince of Wales, along with the President of Rwanda and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom held a Roundtable by video link with the President of the Maldives, the President of Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Prime Minister of Singapore, and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.

This concludes a series of regional Roundtables in which The Prince of Wales has been engaging in partnership with Commonwealth leaders on economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, accelerating action on climate change and scaling sustainable investment opportunities. The Roundtables build on the work of His Royal Highness's Sustainable Market’s Initiative and his Terra Carta which serves as the basis of a recovery plan for Nature, People & Planet.

This series of discussions is designed to help establish areas of joint Commonwealth action in the lead up to COP26 and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda which was recently postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The initiative is being co-sponsored by the Governments of Rwanda and the United Kingdom as incoming and outgoing Commonwealth Chairs in Office.

During the Roundtable, The Prince said:

All I have learned after some fifty years of studying these issues convinces me that, to build a productive and sustainable future, we have to find practical ways to accelerate and mainstream sustainability into every aspect of our economy. Building a sustainable future is, in fact, the economic growth story of our time and blue/green recovery from the pandemic offers a unique window of opportunity to leapfrog sustainability efforts.

The Terra Carta, supported by HRH’s Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) aims to provide a roadmap for acceleration towards an ambitious and sustainable future; one that will harness the power of Nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector. Today’s Roundtable was joined by the following SMI partners: Brian Moynihan, Chairman and CEO Bank of America and co-Chair of the SMI; Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group and Chair of the SMI’s India roundtable; Anne Richards, CEO, Fidelity International and Nicolas Moreau, CEO, HSBC Asset Management both as members of the SMI’s Asset Manager and Asset Owner Task Force.