Prince William has celebrated the "future changemakers" who will have a major "impact" on the world after arriving in South Africa.
The Prince of Wales is spending four days in Cape Town for his Earthshot Prize ceremony - which awards a £1 million prize to five recipients fund their environmental initiatives - and his first engagement on Monday (04.11.24) was with 120 young people from across Africa and South East Asia as part of the Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Program.
Speaking to the group about their ideas to tackle climate issues, William said: “The Earthshot Prize believes in you, and the reason we set the prize up is for moments like this.
“All of you in this room are future changemakers, you’re the leaders, you’re the people going to make the difference going forwards.
“It’s your platform. Use it as you need to, take it away, play with it, turn it into something different.
“Because we believe in you, and what you’re going to do is change the world, I really believe that.
“This is the generation that are going to do that. And your solutions and your impact are so important and so needed right now. This is not noble, this is business, and what you’re doing is creating solutions and a better life for all of us.
"Keep it going. Keep the energy up.”
Ahead of his visit to Africa, William - who has three children with wife Catherine, Princess of Wales - admitted the continent will always hold a "special place" in his heart.
He said in a statement: “Africa has always held a special place in my heart – as somewhere I found comfort as a teenager, where I proposed to my wife and most recently as the founding inspiration behind the Earthshot Prize.
“It was in Namibia in 2018 that I realised the power of how innovative, positive solutions to environmental problems could drive transformative change for humans and nature.”
