In 2020, Prince William launched The Earthshot Prize, a prestigious global environmental prize designed to discover, accelerate and scale solutions that will help repair our planet over the next decade.
The Earthshot Prize is crucial as the world faces a climate crisis. Its mission stresses the importance for immediate action and change and raises awareness about a pressing issue that impacts us all.
This year, the second annual awards ceremony for The Earthshot Prize will premiere in the United States on PBS. The awards ceremony will take a look at the incredible stories of those who were nominated and will demonstrate how everyone can play a role in taking care of our Earth today and for generations to come, from keeping our air and oceans clean to preserving the natural world and finding ways to live more sustainably.
What Is The Earthshot Prize?
The Earthshot Prize was created to discover and spotlight innovative solutions to tackle our planet’s environmental challenges.
“… I think that urgency with optimism really creates action. And so the Earthshot prize is really about harnessing that optimism and that urgency to find solutions to some of the world’s greatest environmental problems,” Prince William said in an interview with The Guardian.
The Earthshot Prize comprises five “Earthshots” awarded to five different individuals or organizations working to combat climate change.
The History of The Earthshot Prize
Prince William and The Royal Foundation first introduced The Earthshot Prize in December 2019, and it officially launched in October 2020. The Earthshot Prize was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. Like the Moonshot, which brought millions together around an extremely ambitious goal, The Earthshot Prize hopes to do the same by inspiring new generations of innovators and leaders to help solve some of our biggest environmental challenges.
As President Kennedy once said of going to the moon, we choose to “do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
The Earthshot Prize Council
During the selection process, The Earthshot Prize receives support from a council of individuals who are similarly passionate about repairing and restoring the planet. The Earthshot Prize Council comprises a global team who brings their expertise from a diverse range of sectors. The Council helps to identify key areas of focus each year and the solutions that will have the most impact across each Earthshot. The Council will award The Earthshot Prize to five winners each year.
The Council currently includes Prince William, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Cate Blanchett, Christiana Figueres, Daniel Alves Da Silva, Sir David Attenborough, Ernest Gibson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Indra Nooyi, Jack Ma, Luisa Neubauer, Naoko Yamazaki, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Shakira, and Yao Ming.
The Five Earthshots
The Earthshot Prize focuses on five Earthshots. Every year, the Earthshot Prize will be awarded to those with the most innovative solutions to each Earthshot. They are Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World, Fix Our Climate
What Is The Earthshot Prize Award
One million dollars will be awarded to five solutions each year. The Earthshot Prize helps to scale each solution with investment and mentorship from its Global Alliance, a network of organizations committed to supporting The Earthshot Prize’s goals.
Each year, international nominators help identify the most impactful solutions across the five Earthshots, and an Expert Advisory Panel assesses all nominations.
The Earthshot Prize 2022 Finalists
This year’s 15 finalists will be selected from more than 1,000 inspiring solutions identified worldwide. Though all 15 will receive support from The Earthshot Prize to scale their solutions, from this shortlist, only five winners will be awarded The Earthshot Prize.
The Earthshot Prize 2022
Marking the second year of The Earthshot Prize, the 2022 awards ceremony will take place at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Mass. This year’s event will include musical performances to celebrate the evening, and internationally renowned celebrities will present each award to the winners.
Clara Amfo and Daniel Dae Kim will co-host this year’s awards ceremony, and presenters will include The Princess of Wales, Rami Malek, Catherine O’Hara, and Shailene Woodley. Featured performances will include Annie Lennox, Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS, Chloe x Halle, and Ellie Goulding.
In 2021 the inaugural awards ceremony for The Earthshot Prize took place at the Alexandra Palace in London. It was a star-studded event that included performances from Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, and Shawn Mendes, and speeches from Sir David Attenborough and Prince William.
How to Watch The Earthshot Prize
The 2022 Earthshot Prize awards ceremony will be available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app on Monday, December 5, at 2 p.m. ET.
Watch on the PBS YouTube channel beginning Monday, December 5 at 8 p.m. ET.
Catch the broadcast premiere on Wednesday, December 14, at 8 p.m. ET (check your local listings).
