Dear Heaven Maker:
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced a global prize to tackle climate issues, pledging “a decade of action to repair the Earth”.
Five winners will receive the Earthshot Prize every year between 2021 and 2030.
The cash prize will be for individuals or organisations who come up with solutions to environmental problems.
Prince William said the world faces a “stark choice” to continue “irreparably” damaging the planet or “lead, innovate and problem-solve”.
The announcement was made in this video narrated by Sir David Attenborough. The veteran broadcaster and naturalist said the prize would go to “visionaries rewarded over the next decade for responding to the great challenges of our time”.
The prize launches officially later in 2020 – a year that will also see the Convention on Biodiversity in China in February [the date is being reviewed] and the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November.
A series of challenges will be announced, aimed at finding at least 50 solutions to the “world’s greatest problems” including climate change and air pollution.
More than 60 organisations and experts were consulted in the development the prize.
The prize’s name is inspired by former US President John F Kennedy’s “Moonshot” – when he set a goal in 1961 to land American astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade.
The duke said: “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.”
Action: What’s your Earthshot contribution?
– Martin
More information on The Earthshot Prize here.
(This column is an edited version of the original story here.)
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Martin Rutte
