Prince Harry is facing renewed controversy over his trip to Google’s "green" summit in Sicily amid claims that he stayed on a superyacht.
Several sources have said that the Prince was a guest on one of the giant vessels moored near the exclusive Verdura Golf and Spa Resort where the climate change retreat was held.
One insider said: "He was staying on the yacht with some of the other VIPs. He would sleep on there, come in in the morning and be around the resort during the day."
According to experts, a 390ft super-yacht produces about 3.3 tons of damaging carbon dioxide each hour at sea by burning through around 757 liters of fuel.
Vessels spotted during the Google Camp – an annual event launched by the tech giant’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 2012 –included the 300ft Eos, owned by Expedia billionaire Barry Diller, and Infinity, the 290ft yacht belonging to former Google boss Eric Schmidt.
Last night Diller, 77, denied that Prince Harry had joined celebrities including Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom on his yacht, but praised the Prince’s "eloquent" speech – which he reportedly delivered barefoot – about trying to save the planet by taking fewer selfies.
"He was saying there are many holiday destinations that because of Instagram and other things are getting trampled by people taking selfies, and these places... are overwhelmed with tourism," Diller said.
"The principal argument he was making was the need to actually expand people’s interest in places that are not so obviously “selfie-ised”. It should be a goal to expand where people go for tourism, so these very few places with an enormous concentration of tourists would get some relief," he adds.
Despite attending a summit to discuss tackling climate change, many of the well-heeled guests arrived by private plane.
As well the 114 jets lined up at Palermo airport, a further 220 landed at Trapani airport in North-West Sicily.
Many of the guests were then whisked to the Verdura resort by helicopter.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.