Prince William’s Earthshot Prize is fostering the next generation of environmental leaders. The Prince of Wales recently hosted the five winners of the Blue Peter Earthshot Competition at Windsor Castle. This competition, a partnership between the BBC children’s program Blue Peter and the Earthshot Prize, challenged children aged 5 to 15 to develop innovative solutions for environmental issues.
The winning children, featured in the February 7th episode, joined Prince William in a Blue Peter “Here’s One I Made Earlier” segment, crafting eco-friendly bird feeders. They cut tree shapes from cardboard, and host Joel Mawhinney playfully observed that the children finished their task before he and Prince William. “Putting us to shame,” Mawhinney quipped, prompting William to agree, “I know, seriously.”
The young winners also had the opportunity to ask Prince William about the Earthshot Prize. He explained, in a kid-friendly manner, his efforts to reduce his carbon footprint at home by turning off lights, conserving water, and recycling. One girl inquired about the most interesting Earthshot idea he’d encountered. William admitted, “There’s been so many,” before highlighting a project that cultivates lab-grown coral reefs capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures.
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The five winners showcased impressive ideas: Marni (8, London) proposed family forests with a tree planted for every U.K. resident; Mia (8, North Yorkshire) suggested cleaning polluted water with algae ponds to combat factory pollution and global warming; Llewyn (9, Glasgow) envisioned compostable glasses revealing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air; Ruby (10, Devon) presented solar-powered vans providing refill services to reduce waste; and Annie (12, Milton Keynes) devised a method to nourish coral reefs with nutrients and calcium.
The Earthshot Prize was significantly inspired by Prince William’s children—Prince George (11), Princess Charlotte (9), and Prince Louis (6). In 2021, the year following the project’s launch, former Royal Foundation CEO Jason Knauf stated that William aimed to determine his maximum positive contribution to fighting climate change in the next decade, enabling him to confidently tell his children he did his part.
In the foreword of Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet, Prince William elaborated on his motivation for creating the project. He expressed his belief in the power of collective ambition and a can-do attitude to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges, emphasizing that change is possible with determined effort. He has witnessed this firsthand in communities worldwide tackling environmental issues.
