St James's Palace

The second day of the two-day meeting, the morning at the Royal Society, and the afternoon at St James' Palace at Clarence House. The morning is spent on final presentations (many of them excellent), and the afternoon is a truly memorable one in the grand setting of St James' Palace. I sit next to the Prince for the entire meeting, with him chattering in my ear at various occasions throughout the meeting. Very surreal.

I give a speech on behalf of the tropical forest science community, summarising the conclusions of the Royal Society meeting. I find myself unusually nervous at the start. But I think it ends up well received.

In the meeting the Prince was surprisingly strident on the subject of climate change, with an attack on climate sceptics and climate lobbyists. I agree with everything he said, but was nonetheless surprised to here it.
In the remaining speeches, the contradictions between the Lib Dem Ed Davey (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change) and the Conservative Owen Patterson (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) were very, very apparent.

Meeting the Prince of Wales, with Oliver Phillips and Greg Asner