The Prince of Wales has received an eco-rockstar welcome by crowds in Singapore where he is hosting his third annual Earthshot Prize. This year’s event, which kicked off yesterday, Monday 6th November, will be a week-long celebration of innovation and impact.
Prince William will be handing out awards to companies and inventors whose work is helping to tackle some of the world’s biggest environmental threats.
Here he explains why the Earthshot means so much.
“In the first year alone we’ve managed to directly positively impact 1.5 million people, we’ve protected about 2.1 million hectares of ocean, upcycled 35,000 tonnes of waste, 40,000 tonnes of CO2 and we’re going to do more. And that’s just five finalists from the first year.”
“Last year we had two companies [winners], both have expanded by eight times, and are moving into different countries. It’s all about scale now. My job is to bring the money, the capital in the private sector, into the Earthshot, and meet the solutions, and go, come on, how can we scale, how can we do more.”
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” challenge in 1962 to land a man on the moon within a decade, The Earthshot Prize was launched by Prince William in 2020 to search for and scale the most innovative solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges.
The five winners for 2023, who each receive £1 million in prize money to scale up their innovations, were:
- Acción Andina, a South American community-based initiative working to restore forests in the Andes mountains
- S4S Technologies, for solar-powered dryers and equipment that enable farmers to preserve their crops and combat food waste
- Boomitra, an organisation that removes emissions and helps incentivise land restoration through a verified carbon-credit marketplace
- GRST, a Hong Kong company working to develop cleaner electric car batteries, that are easier to recycle and less polluting
- WildAid Marine Program, a global non-profit working in collaboration with governments to deter illegal fishing and strengthen ocean conservation
All 15 finalists will receive a year of technical support and resources to help them accelerate and expand their work.
The event will be broadcast on BBC on Sunday 12th Nov, 17:20pm.
Explore more…
Take a look at ITN Business’ recently launched programme Cities of the Future featuring interviews, innovations and inspiring ideas around how our cities can decarbonise as we transition to net zero.
