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The Prince of Wales urged the international community to wage war against “the doomsday clock of climate change” today and to adopt “courageous and revolutionary” measures against the threat.

Speaking in the European Parliament, the heir to the throne said that global environmental challenges such as deforestation should be tackled by a new public-private partnership, involving pension funds, banks and insurance companies and international financial institutions.

“In the simplest of terms, we have to find a way to make the forests worth more alive than dead,” he said, pointing out that 20 million hectares – an area the size of Britain – was being destroyed every year.

“Unbelievable as it might seem, we are destroying our planet’s air-conditioning system. But the loss of biodiversity is also terrifying. It has been compared to burning down a library of previous knowledge without first reading the books,” the Prince warned his selected audience of Euro MPs involved in environmental issues and Brussels dignitaries.

Charles, who has set up the Prince’s Rainforest Project bringing together the public and private sectors and environmental experts to try and protect the forests, also drew attention to the melting Polar ice cap and the prospect that in a few years it could disappear completely during summer.

Scientists may argue over the scale of the problem, but what was important, he insisted, was the widespread agreement that the phenomenon was taking place.

“The mere fact that such a development is conceivable at all is, you would have thought, yet another wake up call as we sleepwalk our way towards the edge of catastrophe,” he said.

Despite the daunting challenges, the Prince listed two developments that gave him cause for optimism. The first is the indication, in the UK at least, that the public may be more prepared to adapt its lifestyle to tackle climate change than the government might think.

The second was the decision by over 170 global companies to call for a legally binding framework in which carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 50 per cent by 2050 – a target far more ambitious than governments have so far set themselves.

“Some of the world’s best known and most powerful corporate leaders are now ahead – in some cases way ahead – of many political leaders in this debate,” he said.

In a strongly pro-European speech, the Prince of Wales, who was speaking just four weeks before EU leaders hold their Spring summit in Brussels to consider progress on their climate change and energy efficiency package, praised the European Parliament and Commission for their work in this area.

“Determined and principled leadership has never been more needed. Surely, this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created,” he said.

The Prince, who has campaigned for over 20 years on environmental issues, received a lengthy standing ovation from the packed meeting room which had clearly appreciated the 30 minute speech from a kindred spirit. Only Nigel Farage, the UK Independent Party leader, remained seated.

The MEP claimed his protest was directed at the Prince’s call for “increased EU powers at the very time the British government is denying us a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty”. But Gary Titley, the British Labour MEPs’ leader in the Parliament condemned it as “disloyalty and discourtesy to the Royal Family”.

The Prince of Wales’s address in the Parliament was the highlight of his second visit in 16 years to the EU institutions. The previous day he had met Commission President José Manuel Barroso and several of his colleagues to discuss the activities of some of the 25 charities he has founded.

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