Britain's Prince Charles has warned business leaders the "bank of nature" is being depleted.
The 65-year-old royal is a staunch supporter of environmental issues and has told key executives that they need to do more to ensure the planet can be sustained in light of climate change.
The prince has launched the Chief Financial Officer Leadership Network, which aims to encourage Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) of major organisations to make environmentally friendly decisions when it comes to the finance of their businesses.
Many CFOs for companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Burberry joined Charles at St James' Palace this week where he warned of the threat to the environment.
The Guardian newspaper quotes him as saying: "In stark financial terms, all the evidence demonstrates a simple fact - we are failing to run the global bank, that we call our planet, in a competent manner.
"We no longer just take a dividend each year, instead, for some time, we've been digging into out capital reserve."
"The ultimate bank on which we all depend, the bank of natural capital, is in the red. The debt is getting ever bigger and that is reducing nature's resilience and considerably impeding her ability to restock - it leaves us dangerously exposed."
Prince Charles is particularly concerned that companies are more concerned with profit than sustaining the planet's natural resources for future generations.
He added: "The bottom line of all this is surely plainly obvious - we are to a large extent consuming our children and grandchildren's inheritance in order to fuel today's short-term untenable economic growth."
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