UK Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, announced on Tuesday the he will launch a multi-million pound monetary award called the Earthshot prize, aiming to find solutions for the ongoing "climate change crisis" and to take “action to repair the Earth”.
Details about the prize were posted on Tuesday on the Twitter and Instagram accounts for the Kensington Royal Palace. The prize was named Earthshot after the word 'moonshot', inspired by the first landing of a human on the moon in 1969.
“Just as the moonshot that John F. Kennedy proposed in the 1960s catalysed new technology such as the MRI scanner and satellite dishes, we want our Earthshot challenges to create a new wave of ambition and innovation around finding ways to help save the planet,” organizers wrote on the prize website.
Kensington Palace said that the prize is expected to inspire “the planet’s greatest problem solvers to solve Earth’s greatest problems: the emergencies facing our natural world”.
“We will be awarding a prestigious prize to 5 winners per year over 10 years. Through this, and the winners work following each initial challenge, we hope to be able to provide at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest problems by 2030. An annual awards ceremony will take place in different cities across the world each year between 2021 and 2030,” the announcement read.