Davos, Switzerland (CNN Business) Only a revolution in the way the global economy and financial markets work can save the planet from the climate crisis and secure future prosperity, Prince Charles warned on Wednesday.

"We can't go on like this, with every month another record in temperatures being broken," he told CNN in an exclusive interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "If we leave it too long, and we have done, just growing things is going to become difficult."

The heir to the British throne and lifelong environmentalist was speaking to CNN after he threw down a challenge to the global business and finance elites in Davos to lead a "paradigm shift, one that inspires action at revolutionary levels and pace" to avert the approaching catastrophe.

"Do we want to go down in history as the people who did nothing to bring the world back from the brink in time to restore the balance when we could have done? I don't want to," he told the audience at the WEF's 50th annual meeting.

"And just think for a moment — what good is all the extra wealth in the world, gained from 'business as usual,' if you can do nothing with it except watch it burn in catastrophic conditions?"