Prince William, like his brother Prince Harry, is a philanthropist and environmentalist. He’s partnering with the Earthshot Prize to announce some important winners. What is this prize though? Why is this announcement a big deal? Here’s what’s going on.
What Is The Earthshot Prize?
The Earthshot Prize is an initiative from William and Kate Middleton inspired by John F. Kennedy’s moonshot in the 1960s. As it states on the website, the trip to the moon “united millions of people around an organizing goal to put man on the moon and catalyzed the development of new technology in the 1960s.” William and Earthshot want to meaningfully change the world by 2030.
This is extremely ambitious, to say the least, but that’s William’s mission. He wants to “look his children in the eye and say that I did my bit” to help combat climate change. Conservationist Enric Sala, one of the finalists, hails William as a “visionary” for inspiring the world to change its ways.
What’s The Actual Prize?
The Earthshot Prize will be given out every year to five finalists from now till 2030. The solutions will be given £1 million (about $1.4 million) in prize money to support their conservation projects. That means by 2030, 50 solutions will have the money they need to meaningfully make a difference.
What Are Some Proposals?
The five winners will be selected in five categories: Fixing the climate, building a waste-free world, reiving the ocean, cleaning the air, and protecting nature. Each category has three finalists. These range from entire countries like Costa Rica, to individuals like 14-year-old Vinisha Umashankar. She’s built a street vending car that doesn’t need charcoal, which could help save lives all over India.
Another finalist is Ma Jun and the Blue Map app. The Chinese app helps track factories that are polluting. It brings transparency and accountability to a region where neither is always guaranteed. In the waste-free category, Milan, Italy is in the running.
The city has food waste hubs, a blueprint for how to reduce food-related greenhouse emissions whilst also helping to feed the hungry. It’s the first major city to have a comprehensive city-wide network to recover food. The Earthshot Prize could help it go bring its mission to the world.
When Are The Winners Announced?
William is going to announce the first five winners of the Earthshot Prize on October 17. He’s part of the committee that will ultimately make the selections, and it won’t be an easy task. The hope is this optimistic vision could make a genuine difference to the planet’s health by 2030.