The Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize awards ceremony will be held in an eco-dome when the glittering event is staged in Cape Town.
Dubbed William’s “Super Bowl” moment, the prize-giving, which recognises environmental solutions to “repair” the planet, will be broadcast to a potential African audience of millions and screened online.
On Monday, the heir to the throne will begin a four-day visit to South Africa, called Earthshot Week, which will showcase young African environmentalists and include a meeting with the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa.
William will also give what Kensington Palace has described as a landmark speech on nature, the environment and his support for wildlife rangers, at the start of a two-day summit for United for Wildlife, his umbrella organisation combating the illegal trafficking of animals.
Hannah Jones, Earthshot Prize’s chief executive officer, said Earthshot week was “dedicated to celebrating environmental innovation, speeding solutions to scale, and inspiring young people to put their time and talent to fixing the planet one solution at a time; it represents over a year and half of working in the continent with our partners and stakeholders.”
She added: “Unlike most prizes, we don’t give awards to people for what they have already achieved, we award for the future potential of their solutions.
“And we don’t stop there, since our inception in 2021 we’ve built up a network of over 500 organisations and partners all dedicated to finding and supporting solutions.”
The ceremony will be staged on Wednesday in a reusable dome that has been used for a number of events, with an estimated 600 jobs created or working on building the structure.
Earthshot’s green carpet has been a fixture since William first staged the awards ceremony three years ago in London, and the 2,000 guests are expected to wear sustainable clothes, whether made from recycled materials or a previously worn outfit, when they tread the famous walkway.
The finalists, from countries including France, Ghana, Indonesia and Nepal, are vying for a £1 million prize pot awarded to each winner of five categories, with the money earmarked to develop their ideas.
The five categories, or Earthshots are: protect and restore nature; clean our air; revive our oceans; build a waste-free world; and fix our climate.
The initiative was inspired by former US president John F Kennedy’s Moonshot project which set scientists the challenge of placing an astronaut on the Moon and returning him safely – and in the process helped advance technology.
Among the finalists in the build a waste-free world category is Keep It Cool, a Kenyan based company using solar powered refrigeration to help cut harvest waste for farmers.
The fix our climate category features American company Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems, which is converting excess heat, produced during the making of steel or cement, into electricity.
UK start-up NatureMetrics, a protect and restore nature finalist, is using environmental DNA technology to identify species populations and report environmental and conservation impacts.
Previous Earthshot finalists and winners are in talks with British Airways about partnerships to integrate their innovations with the company’s supply chain.
Notpla, which produces seaweed based food packaging, is one of the companies alongside Enso, a start-up which makes a more efficient, low emission tyre for electric vehicles.
