Samantha Maiden: Australia’s future ruler puts environment at the centre of his kingdom

Will the PM fly to Glasgow to join Prince Charles in his cheese-powered Aston Martin to help save the world, wonders Samantha Maiden.

The incredible news that Prince Charles has converted his 51-year-old Aston Martin to run on a biofuel crafted from white wine and cheese got sadly buried in the coverage of his disquiet over Scott Morrison’s travel plans.

The future king of Australia revealed his eco-warrior credentials are so strong that he insisted his vintage Aston should be powered by cheese.

“The engineers at Aston said, ‘Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing,’” Prince Charles said. “I said, ‘Well I won’t drive it then,’ so they got on with it and now they admit that it runs better and is more powerful on that fuel than it is on petrol.

“And also, it smells delicious as you’re driving along,” he added.

It’s a beautiful story, unless of course you’re the Aston engineers, who could have happily sent Prince Charles to the Tower of London. Or you’re a serious campaigner for clean transport.

“Prince Charles’s quaint solution to decarbonise his Aston Martin using a high blend of bioethanol made from cheese and wine wastes should not be mistaken for a serious solution to decarbonise vehicles,” said Greg Archer, UK director of T&E, a European clean transport campaign group.

“On a large scale, biofuels do more harm than good, driving deforestation and land use change that worsens the climate crisis.”

So, as our Prime Minister prepares a “technology not taxes” approach to climate change targets, don’t expect all of your cars to be running on roquefort just yet.

One supposes that means it’s back to e-vehicles. We were previously told by the Prime Minister these would “end the weekend” but they are now back in vogue.

As an aside, Prince Charles isn’t that keen on e-vehicles, despite the fact that his son Prince Harry drove away from his $45m wedding to Meghan Markle in an e-jaguar. Prince Charles is worried about the cost and the batteries.

Prince William and Catherine their wedding day in the Mall in London in his father, Prince Charles’, Aston Martin Volante. Picture: Jonathan Short

Still, if that doesn’t work, perhaps vegetarianism will do the trick. HRH also revealed that for years he’s instructed his household staff to source more organics from the gardens at Highgrove and doesn’t eat red meat two days a week.

Which sounds delicious. Although the impact on climate change is, one suspects, negligible.

All of which leads us via a rather scenic route to the dangers of political leaders proposing solutions that only appeal to people to those who think climate change reform is a brand of bamboo underwear you buy and not something that will ever impact on their employment or real life.

Prince Charles’s warning to world leaders – including Scott Morrison – that the Glasgow COP2G summit was a “last-chance saloon” for action on climate change is no doubt accurate. And he’s also correct that a younger generation of Australians are fed up with the lack of action.

Last month, climate change activist Greta Thunberg accused world leaders of “30 years of blah, blah, blah”.

Charles told BBC TV: “They just talk. And the problem is to get action on the ground.

“All these young people feel nothing is ever happening, so of course they’re going to get frustrated. But it isn’t helpful, I don’t think, to do it in a way that alienates people.

“The point is that people should really notice how despairing so many young people are. This is a last-chance saloon. If we don’t really take the decisions that are vital now, it’s going to be almost impossible to catch up.” But how it’s done does matter.

That’s what the Prime Minister is thrashing out with the Nationals this week. You can be sure that whatever is decided, it will be too little for his critics and too much for rogue Nationals including George Christensen.

And then, it sounds like Scott Morrison will be boarding a taxpayer-funded jet to Scotland after all, where he will be lightly haunted by his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull.

He is promising to spice things up by turning up too, hitching a ride on Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s private jet. One suspects there will be some fine wine and cheese on board that won’t be used to fuel an Aston Martin.

Charles, Prince of Wales, in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh last week. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Speaking in the gardens of his house on the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, Prince Charles seemed taken aback to learn the Australian Prime Minister might not even attend.

“I, is that what he says, does he? Mmm,’’ he said in a masterful piece of understatement.

The Prime Minister’s office insists that Scott Morrison’s decision to stay or go has nothing to do with Prince Charles. The Prime Minister has complained about the two-week quarantine period on return, but that’s likely to be slashed to seven days at home in Kirribilli by the time he returns.

So, perhaps there’s another factor driving his indecision about attending that we don’t know about yet? We will see.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles is still fighting the good fight, warning world leaders if they fail to act now the impact will be long lasting.

“It will be a disaster. I mean it will be catastrophic. It is already beginning to be catastrophic because nothing in nature can survive the stress that is created by these extremes of weather,’’ he said.

He is no doubt correct. Even if it’s a tough task being inspired by a future monarch who once expressed his ardour to his married lover by suggesting he wanted to be reincarnated as a tampon.

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