Prince William's Earthshot Prize calls for solutions to the climate crisis. | Wikimedia Commons
Prince William believes we could solve climate change by 2030.
Backed by a global alliance, the Duke of Cambridge has announced the launch of the Earthshot Prize. The new prestigious environmental award aims to inspire the world’s “greatest problem-solvers to solve Earth’s greatest problems” over the next decade.
Environmentalist David Attenborough narrated the launch video for the project. The clip refers to previous challenges humanity has overcome, including landing on the moon.
Kensington Royal — the official Instagram account for the Duke and Duchess Cambridge—posted a statement regarding the new initiative. “The Earth is at a tipping point,” it reads. It notes that humanity now has a choice: we either carry on as we are and face the consequences, or we take action now.
“Remember the awe-inspiring civilizations that we have built,” it continues. “The life-saving technology we have created, the fact that we have put a man on the moon. People can achieve great things. And the next ten years present us with one of our greatest tests – a decade of action to repair the Earth.”
Throughout 2020, the Earthshot Prize will unveil challenges at climate events around the world. The initiative will ask for solutions to a number of environmental issues surrounding nature and biodiversity, climate and energy, oceans, air pollution, and freshwater.
Five winners will receive the Earthshot Prize every year for the next decade at an annual awards ceremony. “We hope to be able to provide at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest problems by 2030,” says a statement on the new initiative’s website.
Prince William has spoken out about environmental issues on a number of occasions. He isn’t the only royal to do so. His father, Prince Charles, also consistently addresses sustainability and the climate crisis. In 2019, he tried to convince President Trump to take the climate crisis seriously.
After calling climate change “a change in the weather,” Trump told “Good Morning Britain” host Piers Morgan last year, “I tell you what moved me is [Prince Charles’] passion for future generations.”
“This is real, he believes that, he wants to have a world that is good for future generations,” he said.
The Earthshot Prize calls the 2020s “a decade of action to repair the earth.”
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