Prince William's Earthshot Prize Finalists Revealed! Meet Who Is in the Running for the $1.2 Million Prizes
Prince William attended the second Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York City on Tuesday, announcing the change-makers repairing the planet
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/0-f1d9986d243e43d3bf0083c9f06f8bf9.jpeg)
The finalists in the running for Prince William's 2023 Earthshot Prize awards have been unveiled!
At the second annual Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York City on Tuesday attended by the Prince of Wales, the names of the 15 finalists competing for this year’s five Earthshot Prize awards were revealed for the first time.
The finalists represent six continents and were selected from more than 1,000 nominees for their commitment to solving global climate challenges.
The winners across five categories will receive $1.2 million to scale and accelerate their project's goals. The winners will be announced at the third annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in Singapore on Nov. 7 which Prince of Wales, 41, is expected to attend. For the first time, the ceremony will also be accompanied by a series of events as part of Earthshot Week. Beginning November 6, the week will see global leaders, businesses and investors convene in Singapore to explore exciting opportunities with The Earthshot Prize Winners and Finalists aimed at accelerating their solutions and bringing about tangible action to repair the planet.
"The Earthshot Prize is all about showing the world that solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges we face are out there. After two years of discovering impactful ideas and innovations, I am delighted that The Earthshot Prize is traveling to Singapore, where the groundbreaking solutions of our 2023 Finalists will be celebrated," Prince William said in a statement in May.
In addition to the monetary prize for the winners, all of the finalists will receive mentorship, resources and technical support from The Earthshot Prize Fellowship Program, a year-long program for each cohort of 15 finalists to continue their research.
Prince William founded The Earthshot Prize in 2020 to protect and restore the planet. The prize is centered around 5 different areas of climate protection: Protect & Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build A Waste-free World and Fix Our Climate.
Keep reading to learn more about this years’ finalists across five categories.
Protect and Restore Nature
Acción Andina (Peru): Acción Andina is a grassroots, community-based initiative working across South America to protect native high Andean forest ecosystems for their invaluable benefits to nature and millions of people in the region.
Freetown the Tree Town (Sierra Leone): Combining community stewardship and digital tools, the City of Freetown’s initiative, Freetown the Tree Town, is galvanizing a grassroots movement for tree preservation in Sierra Leone's capital.
Belterra (Brazil): Belterra works with smallholder farmers in Brazil to restore forests through regenerative agricultural practices and to create market incentives forsustainably grown crops.
Protect and Restore Nature
Polish Smog Alert (Poland): One of the world’s most effective conservation campaign groups, Polish Smog Alert, helps secure policy change and air quality improvements across Poland and has goals to do the same across Central and Eastern Europe.
ENSO (UK): ENSO creates tyres specially designed for electric vehicles that are more sustainable and reduce harmful tyre pollution, leading to cleaner air for everyone.
GRST (Hong Kong): With the development of a new way to build and recycle vital lithium-ion batteries, GRST’s solution offers a pathway to make the electric cars of the future even cleaner.
Revive Our Oceans
Abalobi (South Africa): Using easy-to-scale technology, Abalobi works with small fishing communities to record their catch data and to ensure a fair and improved livelihood from sustainable fishing.
Coastal 500 (Global U.S. HQ): A global network of mayors and local government leaders, Coastal 500 is restoring ocean habitats and advocating for coastal protection internationally.
WildAid Marine Programme (Global U.S. HQ): Global non-profit organization WildAid uses partnership building and knowledge sharing to address the world’s ocean conservation needs.
Build a Waste-Free World
S4S Technologies (India): S4S Technologies’ solar-powered dryers and processing equipment combat food waste, enabling small-hold farmers to preserve crops and turn produce that might otherwise go to waste into valuable products.
Circ Inc. (U.S.): US-based company Circ has created a groundbreaking solution to enable the recycling of polycotton fabrics, which make up half of all textile waste.
Colorifix (UK): Colorifix uses DNA sequencing and nature's own colors to create sustainable dyes that reduce the fashion industry’s use of water and harmful chemicals.
The team lead of Freetown the Tree Town, Manja Kargbo, tells PEOPLE exclusively at the summit that the idea for their project came from former mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. "She became mayor, and environmental management was a big part of what she wanted to do," Kargbo says. "So we had these planning labs and sessions and one of the targets ended up being to ensure that we increase tree coverage in Freetown by 50%. That was a tough order. Some colleagues of mine went back and forth, and the Freetown the Tree Town idea just came about."
Kargbo tells PEOPLE they were "so excited" to find out they were finalists of the 2023 Earthshot Prize.
"Freetown the Tree Town started in 2022, so it's something we've been working on for a while. There's been so much impact but we know that we can do more," she says. "To be able to take this to other parts of our country and also to the region and to the world generally would be amazing. So being told we were finalists I couldn't contain myself. I called my team and was like, 'Oh my gosh guys! We made it!' "
"It's so much work, and I'm not working by myself. We're working together and bringing our ideas together. We're working in communities, we're working with people and we see the issues," Kargbo adds. "As we continued to dive deeper we realized the magnitude of the disasters we have because of cutting down trees."
"We get funding from the World Bank, we get funding from agencies, we get funding from private sectors but it starts and stops and starts and stops," Kargbo. "If we win we will use the money to create an investment platform. We're going to talk to the banks, we're going to talk to the corporations. We're going to talk to individuals to say: 'You need to invest in trees in Freetown.' Once we're able to set that system we're going to take it out to other parts of the country and West Africa and then the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment