In an interview with CNN’s Max Foster, the prince said he considered the prize would be “the most prestigious environmental global prize” to date and his aim is to shift the debate from pessimism and negativity to optimism and hope.
“There are wonderful people doing incredible things around the world, all within small communities everywhere. If one of them might have an amazing idea, we can scale that up, we can use that to really tackle some issues,” he said.
As a result, the hope is to have at least 50 solutions to problems within each of these five areas by 2030.
“We want to change the conversation and show that we can provide solutions, we can tackle this, and in 10 years’ time, we can make our planet more sustainable and more prosperous and better for everyone,” the prince told CNN.
“My grandfather started doing stuff with conservation a long time ago, WWF particularly. My father was ahead of his time talking about climate change. I don’t want to be ahead of my time because then we’re already too late — now is the time to act.”
Jason Knauf, Chief Executive of The Royal Foundation, which will oversee the prize, said to reporters in a briefing earlier this week that the world was in a “make-or-break decade for the planet.”
“We are rapidly approaching a number of tipping points and we know that if we don’t act now we may find that stopping runaway climate change and destruction of the natural world will simply become impossible. This isn’t theory anymore,” he said.
Prince William came up with the idea for the awards during a visit to Namibia, Tanzania and Kenya two years ago and has since taken advice from dozens of individuals and organizations, including The Nobel Institute, Greenpeace, World Economic Forum and Prince Charles, his father.
The term Earthshot was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s “moonshot” effort to put a man on the moon.
Nominations will open on November 1 this year. An annual global awards ceremony will be held in a different city each year, starting in London in autumn 2021.
This story has been updated.