When Prince William traveled through Africa on a working visit in the fall of 2018, it was his time in Namibia, Kenya, and Tanzania tackling conservation issues and illegal wildlife trade that inspired him to explore permanent solutions to global environmental challenges. Ideas swirled in his mind for two months until he had a bigger conversation with Sir David Attenborough in London. There, the famed activist and Duke of Cambridge discussed an idea to create a prize that will not only incentivize the global effort to protect and restore the environment, but also help repair the planet by 2030.
“That was when they started talking about what would become his most ambitious project to date,” a Kensington Palace source tells BAZAAR.com. “Something that would gain the prestige of the Nobel Prize. He didn’t want to duplicate the efforts of others, but after [researching the landscape] they couldn’t find something that met the same criteria … where winners from every sector—be it a scientific team or a 12-year-old in a classroom in Kenya—are possible.”
Now, after two years of intense planning and behind-the-scenes work, Prince William is ready to share new details of what he is calling the most “prestigious global environmental prize in history.” The Earthshot Prize has today announced it will spend the next 10 years annually awarding five, one million-pound ($1.2 million) prizes to individuals, organizations, charities, scientists, activists, and those around the world who are working to provide solutions to the world’s biggest environmental problems.
“This new global prize for the environment will incentivize change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years—a critical decade for the Earth,” says a spokesperson for the initiative, which has been developed with the The Royal Foundation. “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.”
In a video that will be shared on October 8 by Kensington Palace, William will share what he hopes will come from the ambitious project. “The plan is to really galvanize and bring together the best minds, the best possible solutions, to fixing and tackling some of the world’s greatest environmental challenges,” he says. “We’ve got to harness our ingenuity and our ability to invent. The next ten years are a critical decade for change. Time is of the essence, which is why we believe that this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward.”
Starting in the fall of 2021, a high-profile awards ceremony will take place in a different country every year until 2030, where five winners for prizes will be awarded each time. London is the first location (in line with whatever COVID-19 guidelines may exist at the time), where awards for five new solutions in five special categories will be presented: protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world, and fix our climate.
Not only will each winner receive prize money to support their environmental and conservation projects, they will also receive a global platform and become part of The Earthshot legacy. “Our aim is to create the same kind of buzz for these winners and finalists that Olympic athletes receive,” a spokeswoman told reporters, including BAZAAR, during a media briefing. “Create an excitement about who they are and make them famous.”
An Earthshot Prize Council—featuring individuals from the world of environmental advocacy, philanthropy, business, sports and music—has already been established and will be unveiled late on Wednesday. The lineup, which covers six continents, will see the group in charge of selecting winners who are working on solutions that have positive effects on environmental change and improving living standards globally (particularly for communities most at risk from climate change). Nominations, which will open on November 1, will be made by academic and non-profit institutions from across the world and selected by a global alliance of partners (including WWF, UN Environment Programme, TED Countdown, National Geographic Society, and One Earth) who will then submit their selection to a panel of international experts who will make recommendations to the prize council.
Along the way, other Earthshot-related activities will take place, including a global communications campaign (in seven different languages) and a landmark television series to tie in with the decade of the initiative. The duke himself expects to remain involved and committed throughout the entire decade, with plans even in place for potential cameos from other members of the royal family. “Watch this space,” says a palace source on whether the queen will be lending her support.
It is Prince William’s aim that by 2030, The Earthshot Prize will play a significant role in the repairing of our planet—an ambition inherited from his father, Prince Charles, grandfather, Prince Philip, and shared with brother Prince Harry. “My grandfather was well ahead of his time. My father was ahead of his time,” he said in the documentary A Planet For Us All, which aired in the U.K. on October 5. “I really want to make sure that, in 20 years, George doesn’t turn around and say, are you ahead of your time? Because if he does, we’re too late.”
A Kensington Palace aide adds of Prince William, “His confidence has grown along the way [of working on The Earthshot Prize] and he is excited to be working with a team that can support him as he knows that him alone is not enough. He has a global leadership role to play and now is the time to play it.”
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