The Duke Of Cambridge Have Launched £50 Million Earthshot Prize.
His latest project, however, is his most ambitious yet – promising £50 million in prize money to those who come up with innovative environmental solutions.
Like his father, Prince Charles, before him, the Duke of Cambridge has long been an impassioned advocate for fighting climate change.
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During an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, during which Prince William appeared alongside Sir David Attenborough, the royal explained: ‘I felt very much that there’s a lot of people wanting to do many good things for the environment and what they need is a bit of a catalyst, a bit of hope, a bit of positivity that we can actually fix what’s being presented.
And I think that urgency with optimism really creates action.
‘And so the Earthshot Prize is really about harnessing that optimism and that urgency to find solutions to some of the world’s greatest environmental problems.
We believe that this decade is one of the most crucial decades for the environment and by 2030 we really hope to have made huge strides in fixing some of the biggest problems the Earth faces.’
For each year over the next ten years, five one million-pound prizes will be awarded, with the aim of finding at least 50 solutions to major environmental problems by 2030.
Nominations for the prize will open on 1 November 2020, with plans for a global awards ceremony to be held in a different city each year kicking off in London in autumn 2021.
A press release from Kensington Palace announced: ‘Prince William has launched the most prestigious global environment prize in history, as the five challenges at the heart of The Earthshot Prize are unveiled.
This new global prize for the environment will incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years – a critical decade for the Earth.
‘The launch comes after two years of work by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to develop a project which will support the global effort to protect and restore the environment.
As well as identifying evidence-based solutions to the biggest environmental problems the planet faces, The Earthshot Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism that we can rise to the biggest challenges of our time.
‘The Earthshot Prize is the biggest initiative to date from both Prince William and The Royal Foundation and was first introduced on 31st December 2019.
Since then a global coalition of individuals, businesses and organisations has been established to maximise the impact of the Prize – a coalition that will continue to grow over the coming months and years.
‘Taking inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot which united millions of people around an organising goal to put man on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology in the 1960s, The Earthshot Prize is centred around five ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals for our planet which if achieved by 2030 will improve life for us all, for generations to come.’
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These five ‘Earthshots’ are: ‘Protect and restore nature’; ‘Clean our air’; ‘Revive our oceans’; ‘Build a waste-free world’; and ‘Fix our climate’.
These goals have been ‘underpinned by scientifically agreed targets’ and ‘form a unique set of challenges rooted in science, which aim to generate new ways of thinking, as well as new technologies, systems, policies and solutions.’
They will be explored in a series of five new films, to be released today, produced by wildlife filmmakers Silverback Films and narrated by young climate activists including Bindi and Robert Irwin.
The Earthshot Prize ‘aims to find new solutions that work on every level… particularly for communities who are most at risk from climate change’ and is open to ‘a wide range of individuals, teams or collaborations scientists, activists, economists, community projects, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities, and countries anyone whose workable solutions make a substantial contribution to achieving the Earthshots.’
Later today will see the announcement of a global list of leaders from across the worlds of environmental studies, philanthropy, business, sport and entertainment, forming the Prize Council.
The Earthshot Prize will also be supported by a Global Alliance made up of a number of organisations across the globe including the Aga Khan Development Network, Bloomberg Philanthropies, WWF and Greenpeace.
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