Earthshot Prize Winners Announced
Credit: Earthshot Prize Twitter @EarthshotPrize
A prize to tackle the climate crisis has awarded five winners £1m each to help ‘repair the Earth’ though their initiatives
The first-ever winners of the inaugural Earthshot Prize have been awarded £1m each for their eco-friendly initiatives, including an air cleaning technology, a sustainable coral farming project, and a renewable energy project.
Earthshot, originally announced by Prince William in December 2019, aims to celebrate those tackling the climate crisis, and has been described by the organisation as “the most ambitious and prestigious of its kind – designed to incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years”.
During a special ceremony held at Alexandra Palace on 17 October, five winners, chosen from 750 nominees, were awarded £1m each for their eco-friendly initiatives. There were winners from five categories: the Republic of Costa Rica won the Protect and Restore Nature, for its efforts to redouble the size of its forests via tree-planting programmes; in India, social enterprise Takachar won the Clean Our Air prize for a machine that converts farm waste into fuels and fertiliser, so farmers don’t have to burn the waste, causing pollution; from the Bahamas, best friends Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern won in the Revive our Oceans category, for their special tank that can grow coral quickly, in the face of the world's pollution-damaged coral reefs; the Italian city of Milan claimed the Build a Waste-Free World prize for distributing unused food free to those in need; while Green technology group Enapter took the Fix our Climate award for its method of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The £1m prizes are to be awarded each year for the next ten years, guaranteeing 50 solutions to our environmental challenges by 2030.
The name was inspired by President John F Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ project, which escalated the space-race during the 1960s and culminated in the Apollo Moon landings. It’s hoped the Prize, focused on five ambitious goals for planet Earth, will help improve life for everyone.
Said Prince William, “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 ten years present us with one of our greatest tests – a decade of action to repair the Earth.” Along with the Duchess of Cambridge, he arrived at the event in an electric car.
The ceremony also featured live music from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, whose performance used energy powered by 60 cyclists. Other notable attendees included actor Emma Watson (whose outfit was made from 10 recycled dresses) and footballer Mo Salah. Added fellow guest David Attenborough, "We don't have eternity. We need to do this now."