The Prince of Wales has recently described climate change as the "biggest threat to mankind" and warned that we must act now before it is too late.

Prince Charles, an avid environmentalist, has called for greater determination and political will from governments across the world to fight global warming.

"Climate change is now a critical issue for every Commonwealth country," he wrote in CPQ, the quarterly magazine of the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU).

"The challenge is to find ways to mobilise the whole of their society in tackling this ultimate threat to mankind."

The Prince said climate change affects every part of the planet but could not be seen and was therefore easily ignored.

"I believe that mankind has all the necessary skills, resources and ingenuity to tackle climate change effectively," he wrote.

"The question is not whether we can do this, but whether we will, and whether we will do so in time to affect the outcome."

Following UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-budget report last week, which raised 'green' taxes on motor and air travel and offered incentives for greener homes, international relief agency Christian Aid called for much more radical action to tackle climate change.

"The government's approach is horrifyingly piecemeal in the face of the greatest global threat of the modern age - climate change - which could wipe out the past 50 years of human development," said Christian Aid's climate change analyst Andrew Pendleton.

"Unfortunately, the chancellor does not appear to be the caped crusader that we need to save the lives of hundreds of millions of the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet. We need an exhaustive look at our economy, not just fiddling round the edges."