Prince William: 'Birth' of Earthshot idea discussed by Robinson

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Prince William has recently announced the 15 finalists for his global Earthshot Prize, which was created to tackle the climate change crisis. A royal expert claimed that the project, which the Duke of Cambridge launched in October 2020, is “very personal” to the future king, as he hopes to create a better future for his three children as he follows in the footsteps of Prince Charles and the late Prince Philip. 

Royal expert Chris Ship told the Royal Rota podcast: “Prince William basically said ‘The reason why I decided to do this is because in 10 years time, if I looked my kids in the eye, I wanted to be able to tell them I did something, I tried to do something about the climate emergency.'”

Co-host Lizzie Robinson continued: “This is very personal for Prince William, he wants to be able to look his children in the eye and say that I did everything I could to try and help tackle climate change.

“This is obviously a passion that he’s inherited from his father and his grandfather who were both, as he called them, environmental pioneers.”

In his introduction to a book about the Earthshot Prize, Prince William paid tribute to his father and late grandfather. 

He wrote: “It seemed to me, that there was a real risk that people would switch off; that they would feel so despondent, so fearful and so powerless, there was a risk that any real hope of progress would come to a halt.

“This despondency also jars with my own experiences, and those that inspired my grandfather and father to be pioneers in the environmental movement.

“Following in their footsteps, I have seen people all over the world face what seem like insurmountable challenges yet come together with collective ambition, and a can-do-spirit, to find solutions to them.”

Throughout his life, Prince Philip was a renowned conservationist, and encouraged several environmental causes. 

Prince William congratulates finalists of inaugural Earthshot Prize

In 1961, he helped fund the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1963, as well as co-authoring several books on the climate crisis. 

Prince Charles has championed environmental causes for several decades, and in January 2020, he met with activist Greta Thunberg to urge political leaders to embrace a sustainable future at the Davos summit. 

Earlier this year, he also launched the Terra Carta sustainability pact, which asks companies to contribute $10 million toward sustainable investment. 

Prince William’s Earthshot Prize was inspired following the Duke’s trip to Namibia in 2018, after he witnessed the “breathtaking landscape”, and decided to take action.

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The prize was launched to find inspiring and innovative solutions to problems facing the planet.

Five winners will be selected in a ceremony taking place in October, with each winner receiving £1million to further their initiative.

Prince William stated that the name of the prize had been inspired by US President John F Kennedy’s “Moonshot” programme, which resulted in the US Apollo lunar launches and the first man setting foot on the Moon in 1969.

The Earthshot Prize Council are charged with selecting the winners. Members of the council includes Prince William, Queen Rania of Jordan, Sir David Attenborough, actress Cate Blanchett and former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.

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