Prince Charles in Brazil to deliver eco-warning

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-12 10:08

BRASILIA – Prince Charles has arrived in Brazil with a warning that time was running out for the world to come up with a coordinated plan to combat climate change.

Prince Charles (left) shakes hands with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during a meeting at Planalto Palace, on March 11, in Brasilia. The British Royals are on a five-day official visit in Brazil. [Agencies]

The heir to the throne was expected to make a passionate plea in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday for action.

We have only "100 months left" to save the planet from irreversible damage, he is to argue, according to excerpts given in advance to media.

The prince, accompanied by his wife Camilla, was to follow up the speech with a trip to Brazil's vast Amazon jungle, to see firsthand the effects of man's impact on nature.

He was then to wrap up a 10-day tour to Latin America with a trip early next week to the Galapagos Islands -- the nature reserve archipelago off Ecuador whose abundant wildlife inspired Charles Darwin to draft his theory of evolution.

Prince Charles discussed his environmental campaign in a 50-minute meeting late Wednesday with Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the foreign and environment ministers, Brazilian officials said.

During his Brasilia visit, the prince was surprised while being shown around congress by a television presenter of a prank show who offered to sell him a castle.

The property in question belonged to the family of a Brazilian lawmaker who last month was forced to resign a senior legislative position because he failed to declare the castle, located in woodland in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Prince Charles looked startled, but then smiled and walked away without saying anything.

During Wednesday he was the subject of another breach of protocol, this one by Lula's office, which initially gave the prince's full name as "Charles Philip Arthur Chaves, the Prince of Wales" -- instead of Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor.

"Chaves" is a nickname given to a character acted by a Brazilian comic who masquerades as an oafish Mexican called "El Chavo."

The mistake was later corrected.