Prince Williamhas officially set the course for what he believes will be atransformative decadewhen we can come together globally to combat the climate crisis.
PresenterEmma Thompsonsaid she came in the outfit she wore when she last sawPrince William— her suit and the badge that signifies her damehood.
Prince William and Kate Middleton.Samir Hussein/WireImage
“On our little notes they said ‘Please do not buy anything new for this.’ Can you imagine? The relief! So I got my dame suit that I wore when I went to the palace,” she shared.
Thompson also showed off a ring that her husband Greg Wise “bought me for 30 bucks in New York” and her vegan sneakers. She spoke about the evening as an opportunity to help counter the hopelessness of issues like food waste, saying, “One of the solutions is going to be here and that makes me happy.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton at the 2021 Earthshot Prize Awards.Joe Maher/Getty
From a pool of15 finalists, five winners will soon be announced, one each from five categories the minds behind Earthshot have deemed critical focus areas to save the planet: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World, and Fix Our Climate.
Each of these five winners will receive $1.3 million to advance their work, and the Duke of Cambridge will host a ceremony each year through 2030 to award five more recipients the resources to pursue innovative solutions and scale up their ideas to repair the planet.
“This is an absolutely incredible community,” finalist Sam Teicher, who is working to restore coral reefs,told PEOPLEbefore Sunday’s event. “The other finalists are so inspiring. We’re already thinking about the synergies that exist between us all and the different partners within the Earthshot community.”
Teicher continued, “There are a lot of people talking about Earthshot and these solutions and the other solutions out there. … [T]here’s already good progress being made because ofPrince William.”
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Legendary naturalist (andCambridge kid favorite!) Sir David Attenborough will speak about the Earthshot Prize and the importance of finding solutions to environmental challenges.Emma Watson,David Oyelowo, Mo Salah, and Thompson are among the presenters celebrating change-makers who have a passion for global environmental issues throughout the evening.
The inspiration for Earthshot goes back to when William was a child studying U.S.President John F. Kennedy’s wildly ambitious 1960sMoonshotinitiative, which sought to harness innovation to send a man to the moon within 10 years.
“Humans have an extraordinary capacity to set goals and strive to achieve them,” William shared in aTED Talkin July.
Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George.AARON CHOWN/POOL/AFP via Getty
But the reason was also personal for the royal, according to Royal Foundation chief executive Jason Knauf, who revealed, “The challenge the Duke set himself was, ‘What is the maximum positive personal contribution I can make in the next 10 years in the fight against climate change? What am I going to do in the next decade that meansI can look my children in the eye and say that I did my bit?’ Every aspect of the Prize bears the stamp of his contribution.”
And on Thursday, William said he hoped he wouldn’t pass down the"burden" of worrying about the environmentto his three children: 8-year-oldPrince George, 6-year-oldPrincess Charlotte, and 3-year-oldPrince Louis.
For more information about William’s campaign to repair the planet and spur innovation, you can watch the five-part seriesThe Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planeton Discovery’s streaming platforms or pick upEarthshot: How to Save Our Planetwherever books are sold.
source: people.com
