The Earthshot Prize is heading to Southeast Asia for the first time, with confirmation that, in November, Singapore will be the third place to host the prestigious environmental awards.
Following two successful ceremonies in London (2021) and Boston (2022), this year’s show aims to maximise awareness by introducing Earthshot Week. Over five days, business leaders, investors, politicians, and Earthshot finalists will unite to create a tangible impact through collaboration.
What is The Earthshot Prize?
The annual award show is the brainchild of Prince William. It came to fruition in 2020 following a trip to Namibia, where he witnessed inspiring community conservation efforts. He found a stark contrast to the positivity and inspiration flowing in Namibia, compared to disheartening and often overwhelming climate news pushed by U.K. media outlets.
HRH felt that an award scheme highlighting and rewarding ingenious people tackling the earth’s greatest battles would be an uplifting way to approach the challenge of climate change.
The Prize is split into five Earthshots:
Protect and Restore Nature
Clean our Air
Revive our Oceans
Build a Waste-free World
Fix our Climate
Each category has three finalists before a winner is announced during the live show. Winners are carefully selected by The Earthshot Prize Council, which comprises industry experts and influencers, from respected naturalist and veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough to world-renowned climate change leader Christiana Figueres.
Each winner receives £1 million to improve outreach and accelerate their initiatives, as well as the opportunity to network and receive invaluable support from well-known figures in their respective industries. As part of the Global Alliance, finalists can access tailored guidance from international companies such as Microsoft, Bloomberg, and Unilever.
Why Singapore?
Singapore is famed for its dedication to the natural world, earning the apt nickname “The Garden City”. As far back as the 1960s, the country committed itself to nature by creating protected green spaces. Today, almost half of the country’s total area is covered with an abundance of greenery, improving air quality and overall public health.
The country has also embraced green building, where construction must be sustainable, environmentally sound, and efficient with resources. Since 2008 this method of building has been compulsory in Singapore, and by 2030 the country is striving to make 80% of all buildings green.
Singapore is a low-lying country under threat from rising sea levels, and over the next 75 years, they could increase by an entire metre. However, this adversity has prompted some of the country’s best brains to collaborate on long-term climate change solutions. To ensure food security, scientists have begun producing meat in labs using animal cells. To deal with harsh weather and flooding one million trees will be planted by 2030, and in the next three years, the country intends to increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste destined for landfill by 20%.
Earthshot Alumni
The Earthshot Prize has given the ultimate platform to 10 initiatives so far, catapulting them onto the world stage to share their visions, inventions, and solutions. From repairing coral reefs to developing cleaner cooking stoves, the winners have been diverse and worthwhile. Read more about the winners here.
Notpla – Last year, Notpla won the Earthshot for creating a waste-free world. A sustainable packaging company launched in 2014, Notpla has brought together engineers, designers, and chemists to create packaging made entirely from seaweed, meaning it is fully biodegradable and will decrease the amount of plastic ending up in our precious oceans.
Seaweed farming itself has many perks, as seaweed absorbs and removes carbon from the air, and the farms themselves also increase depleting fish populations.
Mukuru Clean Stoves (MCS) – In the past six years, MCS has revolutionised cooking stoves across Kenya to improve the health of its users, save families money on fuel costs, and reduce overall carbon emissions.
Millions of people in Africa are developing respiratory illnesses from toxic chemicals emitted from their stoves. MCS creates 70 percent less pollution than typical stoves, and since 2017 they have avoided more than 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. The company won the 2022 Earthshot for cleaning our air.
The Republic of Costa Rica – In 2021, Costa Rica won the Earthshot for protecting and restoring nature through their inspiring work in rewilding the country. In the 1990s, Costa Rica embarked on a series of programmes to save their forests, offering financial rewards to citizens who planted trees. Since then, the land area of forests in Costa Rica has doubled, and the country now thrives on ecotourism.
The Prince and Princess of Wales will be in attendance for the awards on November 7, as well as a variety of other famous faces yet to be announced. The ceremony itself promises to be as environmentally friendly as possible, with guests asked to recycle an old outfit, use cruelty-free makeup, no single-use plastics, and only plant-based food on offer.
The awards will run until 2031, totalling 50 Earthshot winners. The future of our planet will be determined in this pivotal decade. The solutions are out there. We just need to find them, fund them, and launch them.
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