Prince William has announced a star studded line-up for his Earthshot Prize awards ceremony.
He has enlisted singing legend Annie Lennox and Oscar winner Rami Malek for the bash in Boston, USA, this week.
The Prince and Princess of Wales will fly to the United States for a three-day trip culminating on Friday with the awards he founded to discover and scale up environmental solutions to repair the planet.
Singer Billie Eilish will headline the entertainment – which also includes Brit Ellie Goulding and Beyonce proteges Chloe x Halle – at the MGM Music Hall in Boston.
Billed as the “Nobel prize for the environment” and inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot challenge, heir to the throne William is handing out a series of £1million awards each year for a decade to solve the world’s biggest environmental problems.
A royal source said: “The prize has become the Prince’s Super Bowl moment of the year.”
The ceremony will also feature Sir David Attenborough. William, 40, will speak at the event.
The five categories unveiled today are: protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world and fix our climate.
There are two finalists from the UK.
Notpla Hard Material – run by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez in East London – makes packaging from seaweed and plants as an alternative to single-use plastic. It has produced more than one million biodegradable takeaway boxes for Just Eat.
And Low Carbon Materials, of Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, uses unrecyclable plastic waste to make traditional concrete blocks carbon-zero.
Actor Rami said: “The fifteen finalists of this year’s Earthshot Prize are deeply inspiring.”
- The Earthshot Prize, Sunday, December 4 at 5.30pm on BBC1.
