Prince William announces winners of Earthshot Prize
BOSTON — Prince William capped a three-day visit to Boston by meeting with President Biden to share his vision for safeguarding the environment before attending a gala event Friday evening where he sounded an optimistic tone about solving the world’s environmental problems through “hope, optimism and urgency.”
The Prince of Wales paid homage to the late President John F. Kennedy, saying his Earthshot Prize was inspired by Kennedy’s audacious moonshot speech in 1962 that mobilized the nation to put astronauts on the moon. That same sense of urgency and scale is needed now to protect the environment, William said.
“In the same way the space effort six decades ago created jobs, boosted economies and provided hope, so too can the solutions borne of tonight’s Earthshot Prize winners,” William said.
The second annual Earthshot Prize offered 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) in prize money to each of the winners in five separate categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, waste elimination and climate change. The winners and all 15 finalists will receive help in expanding their projects to meet global demand.
The winners, announced at Boston’s MGM Music Hall, were: a startup founded by women that’s providing cleaner-burning biomass stoves in Africa; a United Kingdom company making biodegradable packaging from seaweed; a “greenhouse-in-a-box” concept created to increase yields on small farms in India; a technique for transforming atmospheric carbon into rock in Oman in the Middle East; an effort led by women to create a new generation of indigenous rangers in Australia.
Providing the star power for the glitzy show were Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle, with Billie Eilish performing via video. The event also featured videos narrated by naturalist David Attenborough and actor Cate Blanchett. Prizes were presented by actor Rami Malek, comedian Catherine O’Hara, and actor and activist Shailene Woodley.
Before the event, William met privately with Biden after the two spoke briefly outside of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum. William also met Caroline Kennedy, the ambassador to Australia and the late president’s daughter, toured the museum with her, and told her that her father was “the man who inspired our mission.”
William is following in the footsteps of his environmentally minded grandfather Prince Philip — the late husband of Queen Elizabeth II — and his father and Elizabeth’s successor, King Charles III.