The current threat facing the natural environment from the effects of climate change is no different to the financial problems that are being faced by the banking sector, according to the Prince of Wales.

Delivering the BBC's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture at St James' Palace in London on 8 July, the Prince said that the increasing consumption of natural resources during the last 30 years means that nature is unable to sustain the demands of humanity. The Prince's 'Facing The Future' lecture also raised concerns that there are only 96 months left to address issues such as the melting sea caps and the deforestation of the rainforests in order to avoid an irreversible collapse of the climate and ecosystems.

In his speech, the Prince said: "Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts - and paradoxically also facing calls for a return to so-called 'old-fashioned', traditional banking - so nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too. "If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust. And no amount of quantitative easing will revive it."