A close adviser to Prince William has told Sky News William “does care deeply about tradition” but his Earthshot Prize shows he’s not afraid to modernise to make sure his work “makes sense” for the generation he will serve.
Marking a month to go until the fifth Earthshot Prize awards takes place in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Jason Knauf, the new chief executive, says it shows “the sort of leader that Prince William wants to be, both now and in the future” but also the huge impact his influence can have on issues like the climate crisis.
Mr Knauf has become a close confidante of the Prince, having worked with him for ten years, and being there right at the beginning of the Earthshot journey, “when this thing was percolating, and he really pushed us to make it something special”.
But after discussions this week about the “change” William wants to make when he’s monarch, Mr Knauf told us the Prince doesn’t want to just shake things up for the sake of it.
“He does care deeply about tradition, about his family’s legacy of service, and I think Earthshot is a really good example of how you’re going to see that maintained in the future, but done in a way that makes sense for the time”, he said, adding: “That’s what his grandmother did.
“That’s what his father’s been doing. Updating the tradition for the generation that they serve”.
Explaining how in the early days they looked closely at other examples of past royal prizes or initiatives, such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, for inspiration, Mr Knauf said: “You know, we didn’t just create this thing in a vacuum. It was about what kind of difference could his leadership make?
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“And one of the things about the royal family for generations, has been recognising the work of others.
“You know, whether that’s through the honours system, recognising people in arts and community service or whatever it might be, all this is doing is taking something that’s really traditional and putting a modern twist on it”.
Last week, a TV programme was released in which Prince William admitted, during an interview with Hollywood star Eugene Levy, that “change is on my agenda” when he becomes King.
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This weekend, the finalists for the fifth Earthshot awards are announced, with four weeks to go until the ceremony takes place in Rio.
The prize recognises innovators coming up with solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental problems.
Among this year’s finalists in the running for the five £1m prizes are Matter, a British company whose simple washing machine filters remove the greatest cause of microplastics in our ocean; the world’s first fully ‘upcycled skyscraper’ in Australia, a Chinese company working on mobile phone waste, and the country of Barbados for its environmental focus.
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For the first time, the awards will take place in the same country, in the same week as the UN climate change conference COP30.
Addressing whether the positive message of Earthshot will be overshadowed by the inevitable split opinions on tackling the climate crisis that will come out of the conference in Belem, Mr Knauf said: “The news around political disagreement and all of that stuff will be out there, but that’s one of the reasons we created the prize, directly to challenge that pessimism and negativity, to say we need to get on with this work.
“Showing world leaders that big things are happening in their regions and in their countries and in their backyards should remind them that, actually, this isn’t something that’s theoretical.
“The actual solutions that we need really, really do exist”.
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Prince William will travel to Brazil on 3 November for engagements in Rio, highlighting environmental issues, as well as attending the awards on 5 November at the iconic Museum of Tomorrow.
In a video posted on his social media, the Prince explains how he continues to do this for his children, saying: “The Earthshot Prize was founded because this decade matters.
“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.”
