It’s a wonder Prince Harry hasn’t been dropped by his eco-travel firm when he repeatedly fails to put meaningful action behind his climate sermons, writes Angela Levin.
In September 2019, Prince Harry became a co-founder and patron of the eco-travel firm Travalyst, with his mission being to change the face of the aviation industry and tackle climate change.
The organisation hoped the then-popular royal would urge as many people as possible to avoid taking private planes that have significantly higher emissions than other modes of transport.
The launch was timed rather oddly, given that just weeks earlier Harry and his wife Meghan had taken four gas guzzling private jet trips in eleven days.
One of the jets was owned by Harry’s friend Sir Elton John, who invited the couple to enjoy a sunny break at his mansion in France.
The trips, however, didn’t seem to interfere with what Harry wanted to say.
He admitted that carbon offsetting was the way forward, but that he couldn’t rule out private air travel for himself for safety reasons on some occasions.
Harry has been an eco-hypocrite ever since, as he implores the rest of us not to take planes let alone private ones, while taking little notice himself.
His hypocrisy is highlighted further when he talks about his concern for children, saying it’s “pretty depressing” that they were growing up in a world where their home country was “either on fire or underwater”.
(He and Meghan have two children, Archie, four, and Lilibet, two.)
A year later he and Meghan appeared on stage to warn the UN about the world’s climate risks.
“I believe even more that climate change and mental health are two of the most pressing issues that we’re facing and, in many ways, they are linked,” he said.
They are concerns that seem to only move him emotionally rather than practically.
Two years later the number of trips Harry had taken in a private jet had leapt to 21.
And so it goes on.
Last month the couple attended a conference in New York and a few days afterwards they flew to the Caribbean on a private jet for a short holiday disregarding that there are plenty of commercial planes from New York to the Caribbean.
Some say the Sussexes have become so grand that a trip in a commercial plane is disdainful.
This month they flew in a private jet to and from their home in California to Las Vegas for a Katy Perry concert.
The jet was owned by a Texas oil heir that emits around two tonnes of C02 an hour; the average British jet produces 7.4 tonnes per year.
In comparison, at the end of October King Charles III and Queen Camilla flew to Kenya for a four-day trip at the request of the government.
It was his first state visit to a Commonwealth country as monarch.
Charles remains a champion of environmental causes and at his request, the fuel tanks were filled with 40 per cent sustainable aviation fuel.
This was followed in early November by Prince William flying on a commercial BA flight to Singapore for the third annual Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony.
Kensington Palace said it “worked very hard to make sure everyone that travels to Earthshot is flying commercially” and it is “offsetting travel in other ways”
Both of these royals try to put action behind what they believe in.
Harry does not.
How the organisation can benefit from someone who goes against their aims by saying one thing and doing something else is anyone’s guess.
I’m surprised Harry has not been dropped.
Angela Levin is an award-winning British journalist and royal biographer. Her biography Harry: Conversations with the Prince was published in 2018. Her work has been commended twice at the British Press Awards.
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