Royal Central - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
The Earthshot Prize is heading to Cape Town, South Africa this November for five days of events designed to celebrate the innovative ways this year’s nominees are working to save the planet.
The charity announced its location on Friday afternoon, and noted that of the 400 nominees for this year’s Earthshot Prizes are Africa-based, which highlights “the trailblazing creativity and innovation across the continent with the potential to inspire optimism and provide pathways to transformative change around the world,” according to its press release.
In a statement, Hannah Jones, chief executive of the Earthshot Prize, said “We’re delighted to be working with changemakers and partners across Africa to spotlight the incredible innovation emerging across the continent, to convene courageous conversations about scale and finance, and to partner with young creators and filmmakers to tell the story of changemakers across Africa.”
In addition to the Earthshot Prize ceremony early in the week, ancillary events include Earthshot+, which is a day for prize-winners and finalists to meet and discuss their innovations; and Earthshot Fellowship Retreat, which is the first event in a year-long mentorship programme for the 15 winners and finalists to scale-up their innovations with a wider net of support.
The nomination process has closed for 2024, with the charity sharing that there are nearly 2,500 finalists and nearly 400 of those are African-based innovations.
Nominees will be announced at a later date.
This year marks the fourth iteration of the Earthshot Prize. Ceremonies have taken place in London, Boston and Singapore.
The Earthshot Prize was created by Prince William as a way to spotlight and support people, companies and groups who are working to save the planet across five main areas of focus: protecting and restoring nature, clean air, ocean, creating a waste-free world, and fixing the climate.
Each winner receives £1 million to work on and scale up their innovation, with further support provided by a wider net within the Earthshot Prize community.