Prince William Pulls In Stars For 'Earthshot Prize'

Prince William's foundation has launched The Earthshot Prize, a £50 million global environment prize.

The Earthshot Prize is designed to recognise the most inspiring solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges, by awarding a one million pound reward to 50 different solutions to the world's greatest environmental problems, between now and 2030. 

The initiative, announced last week by the Prince's foundation, is supported by some of the world's wealthiest billionaires and most well-known sports stars and celebrities. For example Jack Ma, philanthropist, entrepreneur and UNSDG advocate, and Yao Ming, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and environmentalist, will join as members of the prestigious Earthshot Prize Council. Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett, Indra Nooyi and Naoko Yamazaki, and other influential individuals are also members of the Council. 

Every year from 2021 until 2030, the Council will award The Earthshot Prize to five winners, one per Earthshot, whose evidence-based solutions make the most progress towards the five Earthshots. The Prize could be awarded to a wide range of individuals, teams or collaborations – scientists, activists, economists, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities, and countries – anyone who is making a substantial development or outstanding contribution to solving these environmental challenges.

The Earthshot Prize aims to incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next 10 years. The £50 million prize will provide at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030. 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.

A series of five short films, bringing each Earthshot to life and narrated by young climate activists, including Bindi and Robert Irwin, have also been released on The Earthshot Prize’s Weibo and Twitter channels.

To mark the launch of the Prize, a short film has been released which sees Prince William and Sir David Attenborough together at Kensington Palace, speaking about their passion for the environment and the critical role that The Earthshot Prize can play in repairing our planet over the next ten years. The film also features each of the 11 other announced members of The Earthshot Prize Council, who explain their motivations for becoming involved in The Earthshot Prize and the differing environmental challenges faced globally.

Sir David Attenborough was quoted as saying: “I really do think things are about to start to move, and this sort of idea could be the spark that is really going to give it the lift and the impetus to develop into something huge. It’s a great source of hope, and I hope it spreads around the world.”

The film can be viewed at www.earthshotprize.org