Prince William champions Africa's role at 2024 Earthshot Prize – The ...
Earthshot Prize announces this year’s winners who are shaping a greener, cleaner future
Africa is a “hub of creativity and innovation that will solve the planet’s toughest environmental problems”, Britain’s Prince William said in Cape Town on Wednesday night.
He was speaking at a star-studded event to announce the five winners of this year’s Earthshot Prize, which was broadcast live in 50 African countries.
This is the fourth annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony and the first held in South Africa. This year’s winners were selected from 15 finalists and will be awarded £1 million each to “accelerate and scale their game-changing environmental solutions”.
“When I founded the Earthshot prize in 2020, my ambition was to champion the spirit of ingenuity that put a man on the moon within 10 years,” William said, referencing former US president John F Kennedy’s Moonshot, which united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon.
“Our aim was to find solutions to repair our planet and provide real hope for the future. We want to make this the decade in which we transform the world for good, one solution at a time, from the ground up.”
The Earthshot Prize aims to encourage and scale innovative solutions that can help put the world firmly on a trajectory towards a stable climate, “where communities, oceans and biodiversity thrive in harmony, by 2030”.
William said the idea first came to him during a trip to Namibia and Tanzania where he saw “some of the stunning wildlife that calls this continent home” and was struck by the effect that local people were having on the environment around them.
“Thanks to their ingenuity and creativity, biodiversity was returning, animals were being protected and jobs were being created.
“I saw firsthand the extent to which people were dedicating their time, talent and vision to fixing environmental challenges but they weren’t getting the support they needed to speed their solutions to scale or to have them replicated worldwide,” he said.
“However, I believe our world can be rich in possibilities, in hope and in optimism. That is why the Earthshot Prize exists. To champion the gamechangers, the inventors, the makers, the creatives, the leaders — to help them build upon the amazing things they’ve already achieved, to speed their innovation to scale and to inspire the next generation to create the future we all need.”
He noted that the African continent, despite contributing the least to global warming, is among the most vulnerable to its effects.
“Since we began, we received over 5 000 nominations — each of those solutions tell a story of hope and possibility. In 2024 alone, nearly 400 were conceived here in Africa. Each of those solutions should be seen as a reminder that Africa is a hub of creativity and innovation that will solve our planet’s toughest environmental challenges,” William said.
The Earthshot prize winners are:
Fix Our Climate: Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems, US
It has developed a simple, safe and scalable technology to capture waste heat and convert it into electricity, offering a game-changing solution for heavy industries like cement and steel production. These industries require extremely high temperatures, which generate vast amounts of waste heat that is typically lost. ATS’s technologies have the potential to save gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.
Revive Our Oceans: High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People
A groundbreaking alliance of 119 countries with the ambitious goal to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030, High Ambition Coalition identifies technical, financial and knowledge gaps and connects governments with technical assistance and funding.
They’ve already achieved a major milestone with the adoption of the 30×30 target in the 2022 United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework.
Build a Waste-Free World: Keep IT Cool, Kenya
Keep IT Cool addresses the challenge of food spoilage by providing sustainable, localised
refrigeration systems that help small farmers and fishers preserve their produce.
By installing solar-powered cold storage units where fish are landed, the KIC significantly
reduces spoilage and waste by ensuring the catch stays fresh and managing its transport to market.
With plans to grow into East Africa and beyond, the KIC is now working to expand their activities in poultry, fruit and vegetables and aims to bring their solution to more communities.
Protect and Restore Nature: Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, Kazakhstan
The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has achieved the almost unprecedented feat of saving the critically endangered Saiga antelope from extinction. This mission has grown into one of the world’s largest conservation projects and is focused on protecting and restoring Kazakhstan’s Golden Steppe, one of the world’s least protected natural ecosystems.
Clean Our Air: Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO), Ghana
A youth-led, gender-balanced organisation, GAYO uses its “zero waste model” to drive
behavioural change in waste management practices across Africa that cut greenhouse gas emissions and particle pollution, while also bringing additional income.
Their goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and particle pollution in Ghana by 70%, compared to open burning, as well as divert a total of 4 000 tonnes of waste by 2030. GAYO’s plans to scale would make them the leading model for waste management on the continent.
