Prestigious environmental prize launched by Royal Foundation

The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launched the Earthshot Prize, the most ambitious and prestigious global environment prize in history, designed to incentivise change and help repair the planet over the next 10 years on 8 October. Five, one million-pound prizes will be awarded each year for the next 10 years, providing at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030, according to the Royal Foundation.

“The Earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice. Either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve. People can achieve great things. The next 10 years present us with one of our greatest tests, a decade of action to repair the Earth,” says Prince William. The Earthshot Prize aims to maximise impact and take solutions to scale to celebrate the people and places driving change and to inspire people all over the world to work together to repair the planet. Taking inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot which united millions of people around an organizing 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’.

According to the Royal Foundation, they are simple, but ambitious goals for the planet, which if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all for generations to come. He says prizes can be awarded to a range of individuals, teams or collaborations including scientists, activists, economists, community projects, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities and countries, anyone whose evidence-based solutions make a substantial contribution to achieving the Earthshots. Shortlisted nominees will be given tailored support and opportunities to help scale their work, including being connected with an ecosystem of likeminded individuals and organisations. In 2021 the inaugural winners of the Earthshot Prize will be announced in London and awards ceremonies will take place in different cities across the world each year until 2030 to award five winners the prize. The £1 million in prize money will support environmental and conservation projects that are agreed with the winners. After the awards, each winner will receive a global platform and prestigious profile with their stories being showcased over the decade with the ambition that their solutions lead to mass adoption, replication and scaling. The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which unite people to tackle some of today’s biggest challenges, is currently running the prize until it becomes its own entity by the end of 2021. Their Royal Highnesses aim to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change and inspire collective action.

“The Earthshot Prize is about more than awarding achievement, it is a decade of action to convene the environmental world with funders, businesses and individuals and aims to find new solutions that work on every level, have a positive effect on environmental change and improve living standards globally. It aims to maximise impact and take solutions to scale to celebrate the people and places driving change and to inspire people all over the world to work together to repair the planet,” says Prince William.