HRH The Prince of Wales established the International Sustainability Unit to facilitate consensus on how to resolve some of the key environmental challenges facing the world –including deforestation, sustaining the marine environment and ways to maintain ecosystem resilience while achieving development goals.
HRH’s International Sustainability Unit was formed in 2010 to address critical challenges facing the world, particularly the question of how to sustain the health of the environment while advancing development goals. The I.S.U. builds on the success of The Prince’s Rainforests Project, established in 2007 to find solutions to tropical deforestation, which resulted in international commitments of US$5 billion for immediate financing. The I.S.U. has since implemented programmes focussed on marine ecosystems, the illegal wildlife trade, the integrated approaches needed to ensure food, water and energy security, and the linkages between climate change and health while also maintaining activities toward preventing and reversing deforestation. During recent years considerable progress has been achieved in these and other areas, reflected in among other things the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. The I.S.U. is proud to have played a part in facilitating the advances that have been made, based upon its international reputation for credible, trusted and neutral convening, underpinned by well researched and rigorous analysis, and broad consultation with key actors from governments, the private sector and civil society.