His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Caroline Lucas Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green) [V]]

On behalf of my party, the Green party of England and Wales, I would like to join Members from across the House in paying tribute to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh and in expressing my deepest condolences to Her Majesty the Queen at this very sad and difficult time. While this is a key moment for the life of the country, first and foremost it is a deeply personal one for the Duke’s family, and, in particular, for the Queen.

The past year has highlighted the importance of family like never before, and I am sure that the death of Prince Philip has resonated even more strongly with many other families up and down the country who are also mourning the loss of loved ones.

So much has been said already about the Duke’s long life of public service, his vision in creating the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, the pioneering role he played in global interfaith developments, and his internationalism and global outlook. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, it is on his advocacy for nature and wildlife that I would like to focus.

The Duke was a champion of the early environmental movement long before it was fashionable, recognising that we depend

“on being part of the web of life, we depend on every other living thing on this planet”.

He acknowledged what he called a moral duty to protect other species, saying:

“If we as humans have got this power of life and death, not just life and death but extinction and survival, we ought to exercise it with some sort of moral sense.”

Ever practical, he took those insights and translated them into action when Sir Peter Scott invited him to become involved in the founding of what was then the World Wildlife Fund, becoming its first president in 1961, a role that he held for more than 20 years before becoming president of WWF International from 1981 to 1996. As Sir David Attenborough has said:

“His importance to conservation worldwide has been absolutely huge.”

I particularly appreciate his impatience for change. He addressed the conference on world pollution in Strasbourg in 1970, telling his audience:

“It’s totally useless for a lot of well-meaning people to wring their hands in conference and to point out the dangers of pollution or the destruction of the countryside if no one is willing or capable of taking any action.”

Ever practical, he was also one of the first people in Britain to install solar panels at Sandringham. Back in 1982, almost 40 years ago, he brought up a global environmental threat that now makes headlines, but which, back then, was rarely spoken of at all outside green circles. It was what he called

“a hotly-debated issue directly attributable to the development of industry... the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere”—

the greenhouse effect.

I am not sure that the Duke of Edinburgh would have particularly relished a glowing tribute from the green movement. In an interview to celebrate his 90th birthday, he was asked whether he would consider himself a green. After a moment of utter bemusement, he replied “No”, before famously going on to remark that

“there’s a difference between being concerned for the conservation of nature and being a bunny-hugger”.

For the record, I do not think that there are many greens who champion animal protection without also being active in the wider causes of the threats to wildlife. However, I am not for a moment trying to suggest that he was a card-carrying green activist, or that his views on a wide range of issues concerning nature and animal protection, including hunting, align fully with today’s green movement; they clearly do not. However, he was, undoubtedly, well ahead of his time when it came to understanding the importance of and our dependence on the natural world, and he played an important role in promoting that cause.

Many people’s minds are turning now to asking what his legacy might be. I do not pretend to know, but I hope that it might include that impatience for urgent action on the environment. I will conclude with his own words:

“It is up to all of us to protect the natural world—and there’s no time to lose.”