A report by inews.co.uk has revealed the Duchy of Cornwall estate inherited by Prince William after the coronation of King Charles III in 2022 is profiting from a showroom selling dirty fuel-powered vehicles, leading climate campaigners to accuse the new Duke of Cornwall of "hypocrisy."
What's happening?
According to land registry documents obtained by i, the Duchy of Cornwall purchased a giant car showroom complex in Solihull in April 2022 when it was under King Charles' stewardship. Of the 251 vehicles advertised for sale, 189 need petrol or diesel to operate.
One year after inheriting the estate, Prince William reportedly earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from the complex. (Overall, the Duchy's business brought in £23.6 million.)
Cars powered by gas release around 10,000 pounds of carbon pollution every year. Along with being linked to millions of premature deaths per year worldwide, dirty fuels are the primary cause of Earth's overheating. They contribute to more intense extreme weather events, the degradation of marine ecosystems, food insecurity, and other issues.
According to the U.K.'s Department for Transport, the bulk of planet-warming pollution in the U.K. comes from transport, such as private cars, which generated 26% of such pollution in 2021.
Why is this important?
Along with King Charles, Prince William has been publicly outspoken about repairing and protecting the planet from environmentally destructive practices, as i notes.
In 2020, the Duke of Cambridge famously launched The Earthshot Prize — which awards forward-thinking innovators for developing solutions to restore nature, clean our air, revive oceans, reduce waste, and bring the climate back into balance.
Critics, including former Liberal Democrat member of parliament and Home Office minister Norman Baker, have called out the Prince for profiting off the showroom and other industrial land — even as the Duchy of Cornwall estate's annual reports paint a rosy picture of sustainability.
"[It] contradicts the public image," Baker told i. "The Duchy's brochures always have a nice picture of somewhere in the countryside or some cottage on the front. They all use horrible industrial estates, ghastly places around the country. They don't publicise that, but of course, they make a huge amount of money from that."
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"If you call yourself an environmentalist and consider yourself green, then that has to feed into the actions that you're taking and what you're investing in," added Elena Grice, with grassroots rewilding movement Wild Card.
What can be done about this?
The report notes that the Duchy of Cornwall intends to significantly reduce its pollution by 2032, while the estate's annual report on sustainable stewardship highlights woodland restoration projects, low-carbon construction initiatives, and more.
The Duchy of Cornwall isn't the only entity accused of obscuring environmentally harmful decisions while boasting about its more sustainable endeavors. In September, for example, Microsoft was accused of selling its AI services to assist the operations of major oil companies.
Accurate climate risk and pollution reporting for businesses is an ever-evolving sector, and no entity or corporation is perfect. For instance, Microsoft has also made positive headlines for its reported or confirmed investment in clean-energy projects.
Nonetheless, the discussion highlights the importance of learning how to recognize potential greenwashing, which can help consumers hold public corporations accountable via their purchasing power and support planet-friendly growth.
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