Just a year after Prince Albert of Monaco began a campaign to increase awareness of the impact of global warming among his fellow world leaders, Monaco itself has dramatically improved its own record on the environment among a group of 40 monitored nations from second worst emitting greenhouses gasses to best. Commenting on the news, a local Monaco travel guide say that the improvement in the principality's environmental record comes more as a relief than a surprise. 'Prince Albert has made the environment and global warming an issue not just to be discussed in Monaco, but to be thought about and acted upon as well. If the results showed no improvement it wouldn't reflect well perhaps when Prince Albert talks to fellow world leaders about the issue of global warming and pushing it up the agenda if Monaco wasn't trying - and succeeding - in getting her own house in order first'. Since coming to the throne a year ago Prince Albert has taken the initiative on the environment and one of the first acts he took was to sign Monaco up to the Kyoto Protocol. Previous to the signing Monaco was one of the few countries in the world not to sign. And in a move to publicise what he sees as the dangers of global warming he went to the North Pole in April. 'The environment seems to be the number one issue for Prince Albert', add the guide, 'in addition to the acts he took when he first came to power, earlier this year he established a foundation to promote new ideas to protect the environment'. In another recent development Monaco, at Prince Albert's behest, has decided for the first time to calculate her GDP so she can play a more active role at the United Nations, which will include calculating how much to pay to meet the UN's request for 0.7 per cent of developed countries GDP for third world development. Tax Haven Previously Monaco has best been known as Europe's number one tax haven, and for the Monaco Grand Prix, held each May around the streets of Monte Carlo. Often referred to as the 'Playground of Europe' any concerns over Monaco changing style are misplaced insist the local travel guide. 'Monaco will continue to attract the wealthy due to her to income tax policy', they say, 'And as well as the Monaco Grand Prix there is also the annual Yacht Show each September. Prince Albert knows that these events along with being a tax haven are the geese that lay the golden eggs and without them there wouldn't be a lot of point in calculating the GDP to send to the United Nations as it would account for very little. By promoting and encouraging events like the Monaco Grand Prix it allows him to play a serious and active part on the world stage'. Real estate in Monaco ranks among the highest priced in the world, with one bedroom apartments ranging from nearly a million Euros to two million, and three bedroom apartments often over three million Euros. UK investors buying Monaco property has increased significantly in the last couple of years, and demand from them has helped push property price inflation to nearly ten per cent a year. For the future it is expected that prices will continue to rise for the short and medium term, but with interest rates expected to rise in the UK it is not certain whether the supply of British buyers will continue at the same pace as recent years.
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