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
Meta Signs Agreement With AWS to Power Agentic AI on AWS Graviton Chips24.4.2026 15:10:00 EEST | Press release
Meta has signed an agreement to deploy AWS Graviton processors at scale. The deal marks a significant expansion of a long-standing partnership between the two companies as Meta builds its next generation of AI. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260424641117/en/ The deployment starts with tens of millions of Graviton cores, with the flexibility to expand as Meta's AI capabilities grow. The deal reflects a shift in how AI infrastructure gets built: while GPUs remain essential for training large models, the rise of agentic AI is creating massive demand for CPU-intensive workloads—real-time reasoning, code generation, search, and orchestrating multi-step tasks. Graviton5 is purpose-built for these workloads, giving Meta the processing power to run them efficiently at scale. The chips will power various workloads at Meta, including supporting the company’s AI efforts. That work requires infrastructure that can handle
Meta Signs Agreement With AWS to Power Agentic AI on AWS Graviton Chips24.4.2026 15:10:00 EEST | Press release
Meta has signed an agreement to deploy AWS Graviton processors at scale. The deal marks a significant expansion of a long-standing partnership between the two companies as Meta builds its next generation of AI. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260424641117/en/ The deployment starts with tens of millions of Graviton cores, with the flexibility to expand as Meta's AI capabilities grow. The deal reflects a shift in how AI infrastructure gets built: while GPUs remain essential for training large models, the rise of agentic AI is creating massive demand for CPU-intensive workloads—real-time reasoning, code generation, search, and orchestrating multi-step tasks. Graviton5 is purpose-built for these workloads, giving Meta the processing power to run them efficiently at scale. The chips will power various workloads at Meta, including supporting the company’s AI efforts. That work requires infrastructure that can handle
SLB Announces First-Quarter 2026 Results24.4.2026 13:50:00 EEST | Press release
SLB (NYSE: SLB) today announced results for the first-quarter 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260422463846/en/ The exterior of the SLB headquarters in Houston, Texas. First-Quarter Results (Stated in millions, except per share amounts)Three Months EndedChange Mar. 31, 2026 Dec. 31, 2025 Mar. 31, 2025 Sequential Year-on-year Revenue $8,721 $9,745 $8,490 -11% 3% Income before taxes - GAAP basis $956 $943 $1,063 1% -10% Income before taxes margin - GAAP basis 11.0% 9.7% 12.5% 129 bps -156 bps Net income attributable to SLB - GAAP basis $752 $824 $797 -9% -6% Diluted EPS - GAAP basis $0.50 $0.55 $0.58 -9% -14% Adjusted EBITDA* $1,773 $2,331 $2,020 -24% -12% Adjusted EBITDA margin* 20.3% 23.9% 23.8% -358 bps -346 bps Pretax segment operating income* $1,321 $1,807 $1,556 -27% -15% Pretax segment operating margin* 15.2% 18.5% 18.3% -340 bps -318 bps Net income attributable to SLB, excluding charges & credits* $
SLB Announces First-Quarter 2026 Results24.4.2026 13:50:00 EEST | Press release
SLB (NYSE: SLB) today announced results for the first-quarter 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260422463846/en/ The exterior of the SLB headquarters in Houston, Texas. First-Quarter Results (Stated in millions, except per share amounts)Three Months EndedChange Mar. 31, 2026 Dec. 31, 2025 Mar. 31, 2025 Sequential Year-on-year Revenue $8,721 $9,745 $8,490 -11% 3% Income before taxes - GAAP basis $956 $943 $1,063 1% -10% Income before taxes margin - GAAP basis 11.0% 9.7% 12.5% 129 bps -156 bps Net income attributable to SLB - GAAP basis $752 $824 $797 -9% -6% Diluted EPS - GAAP basis $0.50 $0.55 $0.58 -9% -14% Adjusted EBITDA* $1,773 $2,331 $2,020 -24% -12% Adjusted EBITDA margin* 20.3% 23.9% 23.8% -358 bps -346 bps Pretax segment operating income* $1,321 $1,807 $1,556 -27% -15% Pretax segment operating margin* 15.2% 18.5% 18.3% -340 bps -318 bps Net income attributable to SLB, excluding charges & credits* $
Sovereign AI for the World: Cohere and Aleph Alpha to Form Global AI Powerhouse as Nations and Enterprises Demand Control Over Their Technology24.4.2026 12:15:00 EEST | Press release
Cohere and Aleph Alpha, two trusted sovereign AI providers for governments and regulated industries, today announce their plan to join forces. This transatlantic alliance would combine Cohere’s global AI scale with Aleph Alpha’s strong research excellence and deep institutional relationships, forging a globally competitive AI champion backed by their Canadian and German ecosystems. The initiative reflects a shared vision: To provide the world with an independent, enterprise-grade sovereign alternative in an era of growing AI concentration and to ensure that organizations do not need to relinquish control over their own AI stack. The planned combined entity1 will function as a transatlantic AI powerhouse, anchored in Germany and Canada, empowering organizations to choose, deploy and govern AI according to local laws, cultural contexts, and institutional requirements. By pooling top-tier engineering talent and computational resources across two G7 nations, the partnership aims to signifi
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