Prince William will arrive in South Africa next week to announce the winners of the annual Earthshot Prize, which aims to find new ways to combat climate change and other threats to the planet’s air, water and wildlife, ABC News reports.
William will travel to Cape Town for a series of events, culminating in an awards ceremony two days later. The event marks the first time the £1 million ($1.2 million) prize has been announced in Africa, following ceremonies in the UK, US and Singapore during the first three years of the competition.
William established the prize in 2020 to encourage inventors and entrepreneurs to develop technologies to combat and mitigate global warming. Moving the award ceremony to Africa, a continent with which the prince has longstanding ties, gives him the opportunity to learn more about the innovations taking place there, Kensington Palace said in a statement. The Palace said:
“Despite contributing the least to global warming and having the lowest emissions, Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the impacts of climate change. Yet in the face of these challenges, nearly all African countries have committed to enhancing climate action through reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and building climate resilience.’’
Finalists for this year’s award include a Kenyan company that makes solar power systems for homes not connected to the grid, a Ghanaian organisation that teaches people to recycle and reuse waste rather than burning it, and a Kenyan firm that makes small solar-powered refrigeration units to help farmers and fishermen get their goods to market before they spoil.
United for Wildlife Summit
During his time in South Africa, William will meet with local groups to learn how they are working to protect and restore the planet – from protecting biodiversity in the Cape region to transforming the local fishing industry with new technology, the palace said.
William will also attend a summit sponsored by United for Wildlife, an organisation founded by the prince and the Royal Foundation in 2013. The meeting will include representatives from law enforcement, conservation groups and companies that work to combat the trade in illegal wildlife products, which is estimated to be worth $20 billion a year.
The trip will be William’s first visit to South Africa since 2010 and his first to Africa since 2018, when he travelled to Namibia, Tanzania and Kenya.
William said he was inspired to create the award by the 2018 trip when he was overwhelmed by a sense of pessimism about the environment, even after seeing the conservation work being done in Namibia.
The Earthshot Prize is named after the late President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “moonshot” speech, which called for Americans to reach the moon by the end of that decade. William and his partners have set a similar goal of finding a solution to climate change and other environmental problems by 2030.
Earthshot is offering prizes of £1 million to winners in each of five categories: conservation, clean air, ocean revitalisation, waste elimination and climate change. The winners and all 15 finalists will receive help to expand their initiatives to meet global demand. The prize says on its website:
“Levels of climate anxiety and despondency are high and political interventions are happening too slowly. We want to unleash the urgent optimism required to accelerate and scale the environmental innovations that will repair and regenerate our planet.”
