Prince William referenced his three young children’s futures to mark the halfway mark to his 2030 climate crisis activism pledge.
The royal, 43, shared a short film via Instagram on Saturday, October 4, in advance of his upcoming Earthshot Prize gala, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 5. In the video, Prince William sat under the same oak tree near his Windsor home where he initially announced a 10-year climate activism project in 2020.
“Now, more than ever, is the time to fix the planet,” he urged viewers.
Prince William added, “I sat under this oak tree five years ago, soon after we launched The Earthshot Prize. The planet, the only home we have, needed our help, as scientists made it clear that we had to make significant changes by 2030.”
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Admitting that 2030 seemed once like “a long time” in the future, he now realized that the deadline was within reach for his three children. (William and Kate Middleton share three children: Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7.)
“[My son] George was 7, Charlotte 5 and Louis 2; the thought of them in 2030 felt a lifetime away. But today, as we stand halfway through this critical decade, 2030 feels very real,” he acknowledged. “The Earthshot Prize was founded because this decade matters. [Now] 2030 is a threshold by which future generations will judge us; it is the point at which our actions, or lack of them, will have shaped forever the trajectory of our planet.”
Prince William and his Earthshot partners named their charitable mission after former President John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” program with the goal of successfully putting an astronaut on the moon in the 1960s. Their modern activism shifted the focus to climate change, as they give away prizes in the following categories each year: “Clean Our Air,” “Fix Our Climate,” “Revive Our Oceans,” “Build a Waste-Free World” and “Protect and Restore Nature.”
Prince William touched on how he was personally impacted by the many inspiring stories behind this year’s 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize.
“It is impossible to hear these finalists’ stories, to see the impact they are already having and not feel encouraged by their energy and momentum,” he said on Saturday. “For me, it is that urgent optimism that has been at the heart of this Prize from the beginning. And it feels unstoppable.
The prince went on, “The people behind these projects are heroes of our time, so let us back them. Because, if we do, we can make the world cleaner, safer and full of opportunity — not only for future generations, but for the lives we want to lead now.”
This year’s Earthshot Prize gala in Rio marks the fifth continent to host the ceremony since the organization’s 2020 founding. Rio was picked in connection with the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Belém, Brazil, from November 10-21, which William is also expected to attend, according to People.
“Earthshot was founded because we are in a decisive moment. It’s a ten-year window of opportunity where our actions today will shape life on Earth for generations to come,” Earthshot CEO Jason Knauf said in a statement.”
Knauf, 43, went on, “The Earthshot Prize was also founded because Prince William believes that this decade can be a great human success story. That with urgency and optimism we can make these years count. Today as we stand at the half way mark of our mission, our work feels more important than ever.”
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“We continue to be driven by the belief that the solutions already exist, we just need to identify, celebrate and back them. Today that’s exactly what we’re doing,” the Earthshot executive concluded. “The 15 finalists we are about to present alongside the amazing 60 before them are showing the world what’s possible.”
Meanwhile, Prince William recently made headlines for addressing his upbringing with brother Prince Harry amid their falling out. During an appearance on Eugene Levy’s Apple TV+ series, The Reluctant Traveler, Prince William referenced his and Harry’s upbringing in comparison to his son George’s potential future as king.
“Obviously, I want to create a world in which my son is proud of what we do, a world and a job that actually does impact people’s lives for the better,” Prince William explained. “That is caveated with, I hope we don’t go back to some of the practices in the past that Harry and I had to grow up with — and I’ll do everything I can to make sure we don’t regress in that situation.”
Levy, 78, was subsequently asked by ITV News whether there were any restrictions about bringing up Harry during his royal interview.
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“I was not told I couldn’t ask anything, but it wasn’t really, you know, up to me, to get into that,” the comedian explained. “I had no interest in asking him about that, because it was, you know, [a] very delicate issue and certainly not up to me to get into it.”
Levy continued, “I think there were other things, you know, I could lead the conversation to that might be interesting for him and interesting for the world to hear, but that was something I wasn’t necessarily interested in getting into.”
