Prince William Launches the Most Prestigious Global Environmental Prize in History
Much is being done for the protection and preservation of the environment. To appreciate these efforts, Britain’s Prince William is dedicating $65 million to create a Nobel-like award to inspire solutions to some of the Earth’s most concerning issues. The “Earthshot Prize” is aimed to shift the debate from pessimism and negativity to optimism and hope.
The Duke of Cambridge has announced that five £1 million prizes will be awarded each year for the next 10 years through the Earthshot Prize, which is labelled as “the most prestigious global environmental prize” in history, targeting to find solutions to repair the damage human race has inflicted on the planet by 2030.
Starting in 2021, the Earthshot Prize will be awarded every year to five people, organizations or groups for solutions to the five “earthshot” objectives: protecting and restoring nature, cleaning the air, reviving oceans, building a waste-free world and fixing the climate.
Prince William dedicates $65 million to create a Nobel-like award to inspire solutions to environmental challenges | Image: Earthshot Prize
Prince William said he was inspired by his father, Prince Charles, as well as the British naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who is one of the judges of the prize. He acknowledged it was surely ambitious and the prize had been 18 months in the making. He said,
We felt that the one piece of the jigsaw that was maybe missing was positivity. I felt very much that there’s a lot of people wanting to do many good things for the environment and what they need is a bit of a catalyst, a bit of hope, a bit of positivity that we can actually fix what’s being presented. And I think that urgency with optimism really creates action. And so the Earthshot prize is really about harnessing that optimism and that urgency to find solutions to some of the world’s greatest environmental problems.
Inspired by John F. Kennedy’s ambitious “moonshot” lunar program, the prize is centered on five simple yet ambitious goals for the planet. The nominees for this prize can be individuals, people-powered movements, businesses, cities, and countries.
William set up the prize through his Royal Foundation, while seeking advice from teams behind the Nobel Prize and Xprize. Nominations for the first five £1m prizes will start on November 1. Over 100 nominators have been selected from all across the globe. The first five winners will be revealed at a ceremony in London next year.
The prize is reinforced by a global association of partnerships, including WWF and Greenpeace, with plans for it to have its own foundation by next year. Sponsors include the Aga Khan Development Network, Bloomberg Philanthropies, DP World in partnership with Dubai Expo 2020, and the Jack Ma Foundation.
The prizes will be bestowed by a council, a global team of high-profile leaders from the environmental, philanthropic, business, sporting and entertainment domains. The 13 members include actor Cate Blanchett, singer Shakira, Queen Rania of Jordan, Japanese former astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, Brazilian footballer Dani Alves, basketball star Yao Ming and Attenborough.
This ambitious yet inspiring goal has come at a time when the earth is facing so many environmental challenges, including global warming and climate change. It has become crucial to yield immediate solutions to deal with these challenges in order to sustain life on earth.
