Prince Charles To Meet World Leaders In London To Discuss Saving The Rainforests

Britain's Prince Charles is planning to meet G20 leaders for an "emergency meeting" about rainforests in London this week.

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The 60-year-old royal has invited world leaders to St. James Palace tomorrow to discuss deforestation ahead of the official G20 reception at Buckingham Palace.

He is expected to put pressure on them to support his charity the Prince's Rainforest Project, which wants poorer nations to be paid not to chop down trees.

A Clarence House spokesperson said: "The Prince of Wales is keen to take the opportunity with so many leaders in town to convene a meeting to see if a further step forward to halt deforestation can be achieved."

Leaders of rainforest nations like Indonesia and Guyana will be joined at the meeting by President Sarkozy of France, President Berlusconi of Italy and President of the European Union Jose Manuel Barroso.

The President of the World Bank and President of Norway are also expected to be there, along with UK ministers.

Charles believes world leaders should unite to create a financing system to protect rainforests, but many of his ideas would take more than 10 years to implement.

A more immediate solution put forward by Charles is a "rainforest bond", which would see an international agency raise money to protect rainforests by offering long-term, competitively-priced bonds to pension funds and other investors.

Bonds would guaranteed by developed nations and the interest could be repaid from income from future carbon markets.