Prince will tread carefully to give himself a lighter carbon footprint

The ranks of commuters lining railway platforms are likely to be joined by the Prince of Wales as part of an effort to reduce the royal carbon footprint.

The Prince intends to cut back on the number of domestic and international air flights, which introduce carbon emissions directly into the atmosphere.

The promise was made shortly before he announced an initiative, backed by the Prime Minister and religious leaders, to encourage businesses to introduce environmental accounting. Company accountancy techniques should, he said, include details of each company’s impact on the environment in terms of carbon footprints and the impact on biodiversity.

His company, Duchy Originals, will help to test a range of measurement techniques to determine how a standardised accountancy system can be added to the financial accounting carried out by businesses. Among the initiatives likely to be tested by the organic products company, as part of the Accountancy for Sustainability Project, is an assessment of the carbon-emission cost of producing each packet of biscuits, with the details published on the packages.