A global team of high-profile leaders from the environmental, philanthropic, business, sporting, and entertainment worlds has joined Prince William as members of The Earthshot Prize Council.
The Earthshot Prize, which launched today, is the most prestigious global environment prize in history and aims to incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next 10 years. The £50 million prizes will provide at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030. Taking inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot which united millions of people around an organising goal to put the man on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology in the 1960s, The Earthshot Prize is centered around five ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals for our planet which if achieved by 2030 will improve life for us all, for generations to come.
The Earthshot Prize Council is a truly global list of influential individuals from a wide range of different sectors, all of whom are committed to championing positive action in the environmental space. Joining Prince William as members of The Earthshot Prize Council today are:
• Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah (Jordan);
• Cate Blanchett – actor, producer, and humanitarian (Australia);
• Christiana Figueres – Former UN climate chief, responsible for the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change (Costa Rica);
• Dani Alves – professional footballer (Brazil);
• Sir David Attenborough – broadcaster and natural historian (UK);
• Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim – environmental activist (Chad);
• Indra Nooyi – business executive and former Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo (US & India);
• Jack Ma – philanthropist, entrepreneur and UNSDG Advocate (China);
• Naoko Yamazaki – former astronaut onboard the International Space Station (Japan);
• Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – economist and international development expert (Nigeria);
• Shakira – singer and philanthropist (Colombia);
• Yao Ming – Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and environmentalist (China).
In the coming months, further members of The Earthshot Prize Council will be announced as the global coalition supporting the Prize expands.
Every year from 2021 until 2030, The Earthshot Prize Council will award The Earthshot Prize to five winners, one per Earthshot, whose evidence-based solutions make the most progress towards the five Earthshots:
A distinguished panel of experts will support the judging process, making recommendations to the Prize Council who will select the final winners. The Prize could be awarded to a wide range of individuals, teams or collaborations – scientists, activists, economists, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities, and countries – anyone who is making a substantial development or outstanding contribution to solving these environmental challenges. Each winner will receive a one million-pound reward that will be used to support agreed environmental and conservation projects as well as large-scale public recognition and significant support to scale their solution.
To mark the launch of the Prize, a short film has been released which sees Prince William and Sir David Attenborough together at Kensington Palace, speaking about their passion for the environment and the critical role that The Earthshot Prize can play in repairing our planet over the next ten years. The film also features each of the 11 other announced members of The Earthshot Prize Council, who explain their motivations for becoming involved in The Earthshot Prize and the differing environmental challenges faced globally. The film can be viewed at www.earthshotprize.org.
Over the course of the next decade, The Earthshot Prize will find and highlight the most inspiring solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. But the Prize is about much more than awarding achievement – it is a decade of action to convene the environmental world with funders, businesses and individuals to maximise impact and take solutions to scale, to celebrate the people and places driving change; and to inspire people all over the world to work together to repair the planet.
