2024 Earthshot Prize - the 5 winners of £1m

Prince William, Prince of Wales meets the 2024 Earthshot Prize Finalists at the Kirstenbosch Gardens, in Cape Town, South Africa, 6 November 2024. Victoria Jones/Pool via Reuters

The five winners were selected from an international shortlist of 15 finalists, and each takes home £1m (about R22,703,000) to boost development of their projects.

Winners

Prince William in South Africa for green prize ceremony

Michael Holden  1 Nov 2024

About the winning projects

Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has grown into one of the world’s largest conservation projects – to protect and restore Kazakhstan’s Golden Steppe - and has saved the critically endangered Saiga Antelope from extinction.

Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) drives behavioural change to help communities clean up waste, create jobs and build infrastructure to support circular waste management across Africa.

High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) engages with governments around the world to officially protect 30% of our land and oceans by 2030.

Keep IT Cool (KIC) provides sustainable refrigeration and smart distribution solutions for small farmers and fishers.

Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems offers a simple, safe and reliable solution to transform industrial waste heat into electricity for use in hard to abate industries, with the potential to save gigatonnes of CO2.

Earthshot Prize: 5 winners that will help solve major environmental problems

Mark Maslin  7 Dec 2022

Earthshot Prize development

The Earthshot Prize was launched by Prince William in 2020 with the aim to find innovations to combat climate and other green issues. The name is a nod to former US President John F. Kennedy's "moonshot" project which led to the 1969 lunar landing.

The Prince said that the reason the Earthshot Prize exists is "to champion the game-changers, the inventors, the makers, the creatives, the leaders; to help them build upon the amazing things they’ve already achieved; to speed their innovations to scale and to inspire the next generation to create the future we all need.”

Prince William arrived in South Africa on Monday for a four-day trip centered around Earthshot Week. His trip included a visit with President Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as meeting young environmentalists and playing rugby with local schoolchildren of Ocean View in Cape Town.

"By the end of the week, I want The Earthshot Prize to have provided a platform to all those innovators bringing about change for their communities, encouraged potential investors to speed African solutions to scale and inspired young people across Africa who are engaged in climate issues," he said in a statement ahead of the visit.

Prince William launches Earthshot Prize, 5 challenges unveiled

9 Oct 2020

Awards ceremony

The Earthshot Prize ceremony was hosted by SA TV presenter Bonang Matheba alongside US actor Billy Porter. Supermodel and television host Heidi Klum, actor and activist Nina Dobrev, artist and actor Tobe Nwigwe, and supermodel and beauty entrepreneur Winnie Harlow joined the broadcast to announce the five winners from each category.

SA Deputy President Paul Mashatile attended on behalf of President Ramaphosa. Mashatile said that despite only being in its fourth year, this prize is viewed as the most prestigious global prize for the environment in history.

“[T]he significant work that Earthshot has done by scaling ingenious solutions to the most pressing challenges facing the world, such as climate change, waste management, cleaning our air, saving our oceans, and saving and restoring nature is remarkable and aligned with South Africa’s priorities towards climate action, environmental protection and restoration, and cleaning the environment,” the Deputy President said.

Watch the ceremony here