The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate Middleton, are all set to attend the 2023 Earthshot Prize ceremony. The third annual award show is to be held in Singapore on 7 November 2023.
“Designed to find and grow the solutions that will repair our planet this decade,” the Earthshot Prize, as described on its official website, is a brainchild of Prince William, who founded it in 2020. The prestigious accolade “aims to discover, celebrate, accelerate and scale solutions that can help put the world firmly on a trajectory towards a stable climate, where communities, oceans and biodiversity thrive in harmony by 2030.”
Southeast Asia is one of the worst-affected regions in the world with respect to the adversities of climate change. Yet, it thrives as a hub of business, innovation and entrepreneurs who are committed to bring about a positive change for the planet.
More about Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Singapore travel and the Earthshot Prize
Earthshot Prize 2023 in Singapore
This year marks the first time the Earthshot Prize is being held in Southeast Asia. It is also the first time that the award show will be accompanied by a series of events comprising Earthshot Week.
The five winners of this year’s edition will receive GBP 1 million (approximately USD 1.25 million or SGD 1.7 million). It is aimed to act as a propeller to further their innovations and ideas, and implement them at a larger scale.
The five main areas of achievement in healing the planet, known as the ‘Earthshots,’ are ‘Protect and Restore Nature,’ ‘Clean our Air,’ ‘Revive our Oceans,’ ‘Build a Waste-free World’ and ‘Fix our Climate.’
Singapore is expected to receive world leaders, businesses and investors from 6 November, as they seek to find new opportunities with the Earthshot winners to help accelerate their plans in a way that shows visible effects on the earth.
The event is to have performances by globally renowned artists and musicians as well, although further details are yet to be revealed. However, previous years’ editions have seen the likes of Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Billie Eilish and Shawn Mendes perform.
Strategic partners
The 2023 Earthshot Prize is supported by a number of global organisations — philanthropic organisation Temasek Trust, investment house Temasek, decarbonisation investment hub GenZero and Conservation International. Standard Chartered Bank comes on board as a founding partner. Former New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, has also joined the board of trustees of the Earthshot Prize.
These bodies bring in their expertise, knowledge and huge network bandwidth to encourage a fruitful series of collaborations during the entire Singapore event. Desmond Kuek, CEO of Temasek Trust said, “Temasek Trust will draw on the experience and expertise in catalytic philanthropy, blended finance and community engagement from across our ecosystem and mobilise our resources and networks alongside The Earthshot Prize and other strategic partners to scale our collective impact across Asia and beyond.”
The award draws its name from US President John Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ initiative in the 1960s, which aimed at sending man to the Moon.
Prince of Wales’ statement and previous Earthshot Prize events
The founder and president of this noble cause, Prince William said in a statement, “The Earthshot Prize is all about showing the world that solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges we face are out there and need to be scaled.”
He also said, “The Earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice: either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet, or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve. People can achieve great things. The next ten years present us with one of our greatest tests – a decade of action to repair the Earth.”
Since its inauguration in London in 2021, the Earthshot Prize has come a long way in shaping the world and combating climate change and other related issues. In 2022, it was held in Boston.
The first-year finalists have already impacted over 1.5 million people with innovation-driven solutions to help the earth recuperate. With the help of their efforts, over 70 km sq of land and 21,000 sq km of ocean restoration have been carried out, as well as CO2 emissions have been cut down by 35,000 tonnes.
For the 2022 US event, guests took the ‘reuse and recycle’ path as they arrived in hybrid vehicles and wore recycled or vintage outfits. Kate Middleton, who presented an award, appeared in a rented lime green Solace London dress from Hurr and accessorised it with Princess Diana’s emerald choker. The year’s finalists are also on their way to making big differences.
(Main and feature image: The Prince and Princess of Wales/ Instagram)
This article was first published on Travel+Leisure Singapore.