Prince William returns to ‘particular place’ Africa for Earthshot Prize awards

The Prince of Wales has spoken of his deep private connections with Africa – forward of his environmental Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in Cape Town in South Africa subsequent week.

“Africa has at all times held a particular place in my coronary heart – as someplace I discovered consolation as a young person, the place I proposed to my spouse,” said Prince William ahead of his visit.

Prince William’s mother, Diana, had many associations with the continent, including supporting a mine-clearing charity, and his return there as a young man seemed to have left an emotional impact.

It was in Kenya that the prince proposed to Catherine during a romantic trip in 2010.

At the time he said he’d been carrying the engagement ring – which previously belonged to his mother – around in his rucksack for several weeks, building up to the proposal.

Prince William says he is taking his environmental prize back to its African roots – as a visit to Namibia had been the “founding inspiration” and the “birthplace” of the awards.

“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,” says Prince William.

The Earthshot Prize, first awarded in 2021, helps sustainable, eco-friendly tasks from all over the world, with 5 winners every receiving £1m.

There is a concentrate on concepts from Africa for this 12 months’s occasion, with greater than 400 African-led tasks nominated and one other 350 linked to the continent.

Although Africa generates the fewest emissions for international warming, a lot of its international locations are among the many most susceptible to local weather change.

The emphasis of the awards is on tangible outcomes, scaling up good concepts to make a much bigger impression. For occasion, one among final 12 months’s finalists was a undertaking to cut back air air pollution from automotive tyres and that is now being developed in a partnership with Uber within the UK and US.

“By the tip of the week, I would like the Earthshot Prize to have supplied a platform to all these innovators bringing about change for their communities, inspired potential buyers to velocity African options to scale and impressed younger individuals throughout Africa who’re engaged in local weather points,” says Prince William.

In keeping with the green theme, guests will arrive on a green carpet rather than red and South African landmarks will be illuminated in green light.

The prince will attend the awards ceremony on 6 November, which is able to function a efficiency of a tune from the Lion King on prime of Table Mountain, with the occasion out there on BBC iPlayer.