Prince William heads to US to urge world leaders to act on climate

Prince William will visit the USA next month to ask world leaders to listen to his pleas to act on repairing the planet.

The Duke of Cambridge will be in New York in the same week as world leaders gather for the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

He’s attending an innovation summit which is being staged by the Earthshot Prize - the global environmental award programme he founded to find ways to solve the planet’s biggest challenges.

The Prince set up the Earthshot Prize and hosted last year’s inaugural prize ceremony in London.

The second year of awards will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, in December, where the next five finalists will receive £1 million each to expand their work.

Prince William will join the former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and other global environmental campaigners at the summit, in September, which will begin the countdown to the next Earthshot Prize Awards in December.

The winners of the 2021 awards will also attend and share how the prize money has accelerated their projects to combat various environmental issues.

The Earthshot Prize, which took inspiration from America’s Moonshot plan in the 1960s, similarly aims to unite people around a ten-year goal - in this case to find solutions to combat the alarming environmental damage we are doing to the planet.

Mr Bloomberg said: “As global leaders get set to gather in New York, the Bloomberg team is working with our partners Prince William and The Earthshot Prize to showcase the most innovative climate solutions and help them spread more quickly."

There are five awards of £1 million each year, for ten years, for projects that seek to restore nature, clean the air, revive the oceans, tackle waste and combat climate change.

Last year the awards went to Costa Rica for protecting and restoring its forests, a coral replanting scheme in The Bahamas, a project to stop farmers burning agricultural waste in India, a food waste operation in Milan and a hydrogen gas power project.

The 2021 winners will join the Duke of Cambridge in New York just as the leaders from every nation on the planet are in the city to speak at the annual UN General Assembly.

The Chief Executive of the Earthshot Prize, Hannah Jones, said: “The impact of our 2021 Earthshot Finalists underscores the critical mandate we have to accelerate and scale groundbreaking solutions from around the world if we are to address key issues facing our planet”.

William and Kate both plan to travel to Boston in December for the 2022 Awards and will also complete a short Royal Tour on the East Coast.

The couple might even attend a Red Sox baseball game after one of the team’s players used the Fenway Park stadium to help to promote the Earthshot Awards coming to the city.

It’s William and Kate’s first official trip to the US since 2014 but there are no plans for them to visit Harry and Meghan, who relocated to Montecito, California - on the other side of the country - after leaving the Royal Family.

Listen to our royal podcast, the Royal Rota: