The 2022 winning projects are in Oman, India, Kenya, The United Kingdom, and Australia
This is no time to recede, this is the time
to courageously proceed with vision and conviction.
~ Christiana Figueres, Chair of The Earthshot Prize
Prince Willam and David Attenborough teamed up to develop the Earthshot Prize. It draws inspiration from the 1960s and the Moonshot. To quote Prince William: “The Earthshot Prize is really about harnessing that optimism and that urgency to find solutions to some of the world’s greatest environmental problems. We believe this decade is one of the most crucial decades for the environment. We must have some hope, we must have some optimism, because if we don’t, it is all too much….These are grave times for the environment. But I do believe in human ingenuity, and I do believe in the younger generations speaking up as they are now, that they will not stand for this lack of hope.
£5 million will be awarded annually between 2021 and 2030 to innovative and ingenious environmental projects that are making a positive difference in the following categories:
- Protect and restore nature
- Clean our air
- Revive our oceans
- Build a waste-free world
- Fix our climate
Each winning project receives £1 million. In addition, per the Earthshot website, the five winners and the 10 finalists each year ‘“will receive tailored support to help scale their solutions and realise an even greater impact with their ground-breaking work.”
In addition, the Earthshot Prize is truly global! Ten prizes have been awarded so far: Five in 2021 and five in 2022. The winning projects are in Australia, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Kenya, India, Italy, Oman, Thailand/Germany/Italy, and The United Kingdom. In addition to the 10 winners, there are also 20 finalists who will be supported as well. For 2021 and 2022, they are in Australia, Bangladesh, China, The Democratic Republic of The Congo, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, India, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
A few countries have two or three winners and finalists. But mostly, what I see that is brilliant about this spread across the world, is that not only does it spread the wealth and recognition, but it also spreads the word! Initiated by the British, it’s a very new kind of colonialism indeed.
Nominations are open for 2023. The list of nominators accepting proposals is impressive as well. From Greece and the UAE to Taiwan and Zambia. It’s rather amazing. I just imagine the amount of work and dedication that must have gone into developing that network! Per the website, “The Earthshot Prize’s Nominators are selected for their ability to identify the most impactful solutions to the five Earthshots. We look for organisations united by our common aim – repairing and regenerating the planet. They represent not-profit, foundations, investment, corporate, academic, governmental and community led organisations….By leveraging the power of this network, we are tapping into the best knowledge and experience available to help us find the solutions that will repair the planet.”
As I look through the winners and the finalists, the organizers and the nominators, and the broader network they are building, I feel hope rising.
The Earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice:
Either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet,
or we remember our unique power as human beings
and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve.
~ Prince William