Charles, during a recent interview, explained how concerned he is by global warming.

"The clock of climate change is ticking ever faster toward midnight," he said. "We are simply not reacting quickly enough and we cannot be anything less than courageous and revolutionary in our approach to tackling climate change. If we are not, the result will be catastrophic for all of us but with the poorest in our world hit the hardest.

"Perhaps the most urgent, but currently neglected, cause of climate change is the appalling loss of the world's tropical rain forests … that is why it is essential that we find ways to start valuing the world's forests for all the services they provide," Charles said. "They are, after all, a giant global public utility."

The interview appears in the journal Weather, a publication of the Royal Meteorological Society.