So, William, what made you choose these stars as your eco prize judges?
PRINCE William has unveiled a starry line-up of judges for his £50million Earthshot environmental prize – including singer Shakira, actress Cate Blanchett and Queen Rania of Jordan.
The 13-strong panel also features Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief responsible for the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, Brazilian footballer Dani Alves and Sir David Attenborough.
Speaking with Alves in a video to promote the prize, the Duke of Cambridge said: ‘I’m a very boring coach on the corner at the moment looking for some very skillful players to help me beat the opposition... We’ve got a really wonderful team put together on the council.’
The other judges are environmental activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, former chairman and chief executive of
‘Bring a decade of change’
PepsiCo Indra Nooyi, who has been ranked the one of the most powerful women in business, philanthropist Jack Ma, former astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, basketball player Yao Ming and economist Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Over the next decade the Earthshot prize will see a total of 50 environmental pioneers each awarded £1million for their work tackling major problems across climate and energy, nature and biodiversity, oceans, air pollution and fresh water.
Nominations for the first five awards open on November 1.
The project is funded by philanthropic organisations, private companies and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Jack Ma Foundation and US billionaire Marc Benioff.
It comes as William revealed how he was forced to turn off Sir David’s documentary on extinction after his son Prince George became distressed by the scenes of environmental devastation.
The duke, 38, explained he was watching Extinction: The Facts, which was shown on BBC1 last month, when his seven-year- old son ‘got sad’ and said he couldn’t watch i t any more. The programme contained distressing scenes including monkeys leaping from trees to escape a huge fire.
William also said that he has struggled to be positive about the world’s accelerating environmental disaster with his children.
He told Sky News: ‘I think to be perfectly honest I’m struggling to keep the optimism levels going with my own children... as a parent, you feel you’re letting them down immediately.
‘So, having watched so many David Attenborough documentaries recently with my children, they absolutely love them. The most recent one – the extinction one – actually George and I had to turn it off, we got so sad about it halfway through.’
During an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, William praised his father Prince Charles for his passion for the climate issue and said it was now his turn to pick up the baton. The duke said: ‘He’s talked about this for a long time and long before people sort of cottoned on to climate change. So, I’ve always listened to and learnt and believed in what he was saying.’
William added: ‘We hope those 50 prizes will bring about a decade of change and really help to repair the planet in a way it has never been done before, by finding solutions and empowering local communities, business leaders, governments, community leaders... all around the world.’