Prince William announces 15 Finalists for inaugural year of the £50 million Earthshot Prize
17.9.2021 20:01:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
The Earthshot Prize announces today its first-ever shortlist of 15 Finalists, each with a chance of winning £1million to support their innovative environmental solutions to the greatest challenges facing the planet.
Prince William said: "Over half a century ago, President Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ programme united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon. Inspired by this, The Earthshot Prize aims to mobilise collective action around our unique ability to innovate, problem solve and repair our planet.
“I am honoured to introduce the 15 innovators, leaders, and visionaries who are the first ever Finalists for The Earthshot Prize. They are working with the urgency required in this decisive decade for life on Earth and will inspire all of us with their optimism in our ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history.”
Launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in October 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history. Like President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ did almost 60 years ago, the Prize aims to unleash an unprecedented wave of innovation and leadership to tackle our greatest environmental challenges. The Earthshot Prize will be awarded every year for the next decade, discovering a total of 50 Winners.
Five of these 15 Finalists will be awarded The Earthshot Prize and will win £1million in Prize funding for the best solutions of the five Earthshot goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate. The Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on 17th October from London’s Alexandra Palace, broadcast in the UK on BBC One and globally on Discovery+.
The Earthshot Prize Finalists for 2021 are:
Protect and Restore Nature:
- Pole Pole Foundation, Democratic Republic of Congo
An inspiring community-led model of conservation that protects gorillas and local livelihoods.
- The Republic of Costa Rica
A pioneering scheme paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems that has led to a revival of the rainforest.
- Restor, Switzerland
A ground-breaking online platform connecting and empowering local conservation projects.
Clean our Air:
- The Blue Map App, China
China’s first public environmental database enabling citizens to hold polluters to account.
- Takachar, India
A pioneering technology to create profitable products from agricultural waste and put a stop to the burning of crops.
- Vinisha Umashankar, India
A 14-year-old innovator and activist who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart with the potential to improve air quality across India.
Revive our Oceans:
- Coral Vita, Bahamas
A truly cutting-edge breakthrough in coral farming that can restore our world’s dying coral reefs.
- Living Seawalls, Australia
Innovative and replicable seawall panels bringing marine life back to coastal sea defences.
- Pristine Seas, USA
An unprecedented global conservation programme protecting 6.5 million square km of the world’s ocean.
Build a Waste-Free World:
- The City of Milan Food Waste Hubs, Italy
A city-wide initiative that has dramatically cut waste while tackling hunger.
- Sanergy, Kenya
A circular sanitation solution that converts human waste into safe products for local farmers.
- WOTA BOX, Japan
A tiny water treatment plant that turns 98% of wastewater into clean water.
Fix our Climate:
- AEM Electrolyser, Thailand/Germany/Italy
An ingenious green hydrogen technology developed to transform how we power our homes and buildings.
- Reeddi Capsules, Nigeria
Solar-powered energy capsules making electricity affordable and accessible in energy-poor communities.
- SOLbazaar, Bangladesh
The world’s first peer-to-peer energy exchange network in a country on the front-line of climate change.
All 15 Finalists will receive support from The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance Members, an unprecedented network of global businesses, who will help scale their solutions for even greater impact.
Of these 15 Finalists, the five Winners will be selected by The Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse team of influential individuals which includes: HRH Prince William, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Sir David Attenborough, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Indra Nooyi, Shakira Mebarak, Christiana Figueres, Luisa Neubauer, Cate Blanchett, Yao Ming, Daniel Alves Da Silva, Ernest Gibson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Jack Ma, and Naoko Yamazaki.
In the run-up to the prize-giving ceremony on 17 October, BBC and Discovery will release a 5-part documentary series THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE: REPAIRING OUR PLANET, featuring Earthshot Prize Council Members including Prince William, Shakira Mebarak, Daniel Alves Da Silva and Sir David Attenborough.
For more information about the Finalists and The Earthshot Prize, visit: www.earthshotprize.org, email Claire Straw: TEPmedia@freuds.com, download media pack here.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005454/en/
Contact information
Claire Straw:
TEPmedia@freuds.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
SMBC and Toshiba Jointly Develop New Equity Indices Using Advanced Quantum-Driven Technologies28.5.2026 04:00:00 EEST | Press release
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (“SMBC”) and Toshiba Corporation (“Toshiba”) today announced the joint development of the SMBC/TOSHIBA Quantum Driven Diversified Japan Equity Index and the SMBC/TOSHIBA Quantum Driven Diversified U.S. Equity Index, new equity indices realized with advanced quantum-driven technologies. Collectively, the indices are referred to as “SMBC/TOSHIBA Quantum Diversified” (the “Indices”). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260519448161/en/ Toshiba’s Simulated Bifurcation Machine 1. Background and Objectives Equity investment is central to asset management, but it also carries the ever-present risk of abrupt and substantial market fluctuations driven by geopolitical developments, changes in economic policy, and other external factors. In uncertain markets, investors are constantly seeking innovations in risk diversification that can protect their assets from unexpected market shocks. SM
BeOne Medicines Announces Phase 3 HERIZON-GEA Data Published in NEJM and Presented at ASCO 202628.5.2026 00:00:00 EEST | Press release
BeOne Medicines Ltd. (Nasdaq: ONC; HKEX: 06160; SSE: 688235), a global oncology company, today announced that data from HERIZON-GEA-01 were published in The New England Journal of Medicine and will be presented in an oral presentation (Rapid Oral Abstract: 4010) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on June 1, 2026, in Chicago.The HERIZON-GEA-01 clinical trial evaluated ZIIHERA® (zanidatamab) plus chemotherapy, with and without TEVIMBRA® (tislelizumab), compared with the control arm of trastuzumab plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment for advanced/metastatic HER2+ gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA). Dr. Sun Young Rha, Professor of Medical Oncology at the Yonsei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, senior author of the NEJM manuscript and first author of the ASCO abstract, said: “Results from the HERIZON-GEA-01 published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented in an oral presentation at ASCO provide ne
Stallergenes Greer Foundation Celebrates Excellence in Allergy Innovation With 2025 Awards27.5.2026 18:22:00 EEST | Press release
The Stallergenes Greer Foundation, dedicated to advancing allergy research, fostering innovation and addressing environmental factors which impact allergies, is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2025 edition of its prestigious Science Awards for Allergy. Building on the success of the previous edition, this year’s awards recognise outstanding contributions to allergy research and patient engagement and allocate a total of €100,000 to support these initiatives. Four researchers have been selected by the Board as award recipients, each receiving €25,000 across two categories: Innovation In Treatment Awards Assoc. Professor Alexander Eggel, PhD, Department for Biomedical Research, University of Bern, and Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland, recognised for his research: “Improving diagnostic and therapeutic options for allergic patients”; Dr Janice A. Layhadi, PhD, Research Associate, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College
Capchase Secures $200M+, as Demand for Vendor Financing in Enterprise Tech Deals Accelerates27.5.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
Capchase, the leading vendor financing platform for enterprise tech, today announced $200M+ in incremental funding to scale its embedded financing infrastructure globally and deploy more AI-enabled features. The funding, a mix of debt warehouse facilities and equity backed by institutional investors, reflects market validation that vendor financing has become essential infrastructure for enterprise technology companies to sell hardware and software products. As global B2B buyers face tighter budgets and greater scrutiny over large, up-front purchases, financing demand is growing. The Market Shift: Financing as a Growth Lever for B2B Tech Companies The $1.3 trillion vendor financing market has been traditionally dominated by banks and other lenders that utilize multi-thread email chains to manual doc review for underwriting. Capchase replaces those bottlenecks with financing tech embedded directly into sales tools such as Salesforce, enabling 97% of lending applications to be vetted and
ClickHouse Tops $250M ARR and 4,000 Customers, Launches Claude-Powered Agents at Open House 202627.5.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
ClickHouse today opened Open House 2026, its second annual user conference, with a set of announcements that mark one of the company's most active quarters since founding. ClickHouse’s serverless cloud offering has crossed over $250 million in annual run-rate revenue — more than triple a year ago — and added more than 1,000 net new customers since January, bringing its total to 4,000. To meet the demands of AI-era workloads, the company also launched ClickHouse Agents, a fully managed agentic analytics service powered by Anthropic's Claude; published CostBench, an open benchmark comparing the major cloud data warehouses on cost-performance; and introduced House Mates, its first formal partner program. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260527813115/en/ ClickHouse Co-Founders (left to right): Yury Izrailevsky, Aaron Katz, Alexey Milovidov Growth When ClickHouse closed its $400 million Series D in January 2026, it
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom