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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Rebecca Russell

Prince Charles faces constant battle over royal work and helping the environment

At the start of every new year, royal fans eagerly wait to find out who has earned the title of the 'hardest working royal' for their service during the previous 12 months.

The competition is usually between The Prince of Wales and The Princess Royal who earn their top spots thanks to their incredible work ethic and dedication to their royal duties.

Princess Anne took the crown in 2021 when she beat her elder brother to the title after she carried out 387 official engagements to Prince Charles' 385.

While these figures are astounding, it would seem that the environmental impacts of getting from one royal engagement to another weigh heavily on the future king's mind.

Prince Charles has spent more than five decades campaigning for the world to take better care of the environment and has passed his passions on to Prince William.

Prince Charles wants to get to as many engagements as he can (Getty)

Despite being 73, The Prince of Wales remains as busy as he has done for decades and continues to make hundreds of appearances every year.

Prince Charles tries his hardest to travel to royal engagements in the most environmentally friendly way possible - whether that is by taking an electric car or by driving himself in his Aston Martin which was converted to run on cheese and wine.

However, some scheduled appearances are far away from one another and require the future king to travel by helicopter.

According to the hosts of ITV's Royal Rota podcast, this is a decision that the prince constantly struggles with as he is aware of the damage to the environment that taking a helicopter causes.

Prince Charles faces the constant challenge (Getty Images)
Prince Charles will use a helicopter when it is the only way to get to as many engagements as possible (Getty Images)

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Speaking about The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall's visit to Portsmouth to mark the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, the hosts of the podcast said: "Charles and Camilla managed to make it all the way to Portsmouth after having been in Devon and Cornwall that morning.

"That obviously meant they had to use a helicopter in order to do that which, we've been told, Prince Charles doesn't like using a helicopter."

They continued: "They recognise the tensions between trying to fit in all the engagements and also trying to be environmentally friendly."

Prince Charles' has aired his climate change concerns for over five decades and has taken many personal steps to reduce the impact he has on the environment.

Prince Charles' Aston Martin runs on surplus wine and cheese (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

He had his beloved Aston Martin converted to run on bioethanol made from wine and cheese back in 2008.

Engineers at Aston Martin discovered that their cars could run on surplus English white wine mixed with whey. According to The Telegraph the manufacturers are said to have urged the prince not to switch out his fuel.

Prince Charles said: "The engineers at Aston said, 'Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing,' I said, 'Well I won’t drive it then,' so they got on with it and now they admit that it runs better and is more powerful on that fuel than it is on petrol... And also, it smells delicious as you’re driving along."

But this wasn’t the only time that Prince Charles eyed up improving royal transport. In 2007, it was reported that The Queen’s royal train was trialled to run on vegetable oil. Prince Charles explained: "It took me a long time to battle to get them to run it on used cooking oil."

He continued: "Which actually, in the end, worked quite well." But the maintenance workers might quibble with that, he admitted, adding: "They say it clogs up the engine or something."

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