Prince Harry finally breaks his silence on private jet use following fierce criticism

The Duke of Sussex Prince Harry has broken his silence after coming under fire for supporting environmental issues while using private jets.

A report quoted in a MailOnline article claimed CO2 emissions from the royal family’s business travel had risen 98% since 2018, with Meghan Markle and Harry’s visits to Morocco, Dublin and Australia contributing to the 3,344-tonne total.

A subsequent post on the Sussexes’ Instagram account urged people to “make great change and help save our planet”, but followers accused the couple of “hypocrisy” and told them to “walk the walk”.

Read more: Elton John defends Meghan and Harry over private jet criticism

Harry now broken his silence following the criticism by announcing the launch of Travalyst – a new “global initiative” aimed at changing “the impact of travel, for good”.

A post on Instagram informed royal fans that Travalyst would partner with big names from the travel industry as it strives “to spark a movement to transform the future of travel, putting communities at the heart of the solution”.

View this post on Instagram

We are excited to announce the launch of ‘Travalyst’, a global initiative striving to change the impact of travel, for good. Partnering alongside key travel industry giants @Bookingcom, #Ctrip, @Skyscanner, @TripAdvisor and @Visa_US, our aim is to spark a movement to transform the future of travel, putting communities at the heart of the solution. We believe in the power and importance of travel. We also have a shared responsibility to our planet and to each other. • “I want to start with a little bit of background as to specifically why I’m here today, because as you may know, I am not a tourism or business expert, but through my travels I have observed the unique relationship between community and environment, and have noticed something alarming. There wasn’t the symbiosis or connection there needed to be and I wanted to understand why. I am one of those people fortunate enough to have a platform and I want to use it to tackle hard problems, in the hope of finding solutions…and that’s how Travalyst was born” – The Duke of Sussex The name #Travalyst comes from The Duke and partners viewing our role in sustainable travel as catalysts to accelerate positive changes in travel. Travel + catalyst = Travalyst #Travalyst aims to make travel more sustainable, to help protect destinations and benefit communities long into the future, and to enable consumers to make more environmental friendly choices whilst traveling. The Duke of Sussex, having invited the founding partners to start the conversation, believes that the organisations – with operations in nearly every country, hundreds of millions of customers that use their products every day, and business relationships around the world – have sufficient influence and the critical mass necessary to catalyse real system change in the travel industry, for the benefit of destinations, communities and ecosystems. To discover more about the new initiative, visit www.Travalyst.org

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Sep 3, 2019 at 2:15am PDT

Quickly racked up thousands of ‘likes’, the announcement included a message from the duke that read: “As you may know, I am not a tourism or business expert, but through my travels I have observed the unique relationship between community and environment, and have noticed something alarming.

“There wasn’t the symbiosis or connection there needed to be and I wanted to understand why. I am one of those people fortunate enough to have a platform and I want to use it to tackle hard problems, in the hope of finding solutions… and that’s how Travalyst was born.”

Earlier this week, Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan used the recent criticism to take a fresh swipe at Meghan.

Read more: Meghan Markle will ‘never see her father again’ and Thomas won’t ‘ever meet grandson Archie’

Speaking on Monday (02.09.19), the controversial presenter suggested the duchess should get on a private jet to visit her estranged dad.

He said on GMB: “They didn’t even go and see [Thomas Markle] when he had a heart attack. I still think they should get on one of their private jets and go out and see the poor guy.”

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