Prince William’s Earthshot Prize unveils 15 environmental solutions

At the third-annual Earthshot Innovation Summit, held in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Earthshot Prize unveiled its fourth cohort of Prize Finalists, an inspiring group of global innovators, entrepreneurs, community leaders and advocates pioneering solutions to our most pressing climate and environmental challenges.

Each of the 15 finalists are in the running to receive five £1 million prizes which will be awarded at The Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday 6 November, to be broadcasted by the MultiChoice Group across Africa.

“Today, we celebrate the incredible achievement, unwavering dedication and urgent optimism that drives our fourth class of Earthshot innovators,” said Prince William, Founder and President of The Earthshot Prize.

“The passion of these Finalists is a testament to what can be achieved when we tap into the enormous creativity, ingenuity, and optimism of communities around the world.

Representing every corner of the globe, these Finalists are leading the way in solving some of the most urgent environmental challenges. Their groundbreaking work is inspiring hope and action as we work to create a sustainable future for generations to come.”

This year’s Finalists were selected from nearly 2,500 nominees submitted by the Prize’s network of more than 430 nominators from 75 countries. The 15 Finalists were chosen by The Earthshot Prize based on assessments done by its selection partners and Expert Advisory Panel, a global group of more than 100 subject-matter experts with deep backgrounds in conservation, science, technology, business, finance, academia and policy.

During the year-long search and select process, The Earthshot Prize, its selection partners, and members of the Expert Advisory Panel evaluated each Finalist’s solution for its potential to disrupt environmental challenges and positively impact people, communities and our planet.

As a result, the 2024 Earthshot Prize celebrates the most competitive cohort to date. The 15 Finalists hail from six continents and include several firsts for The Prize, including the first Finalists from France, Ghana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Nepal.

As The Prize continues its journey to repair and regenerate the planet, it has become a powerful global search engine unearthing the best environmental solutions and a platform for impact to catalyze critical investment and resources towards these solutions.

Today’s announcement brings the number of global solutions honored as Prize Finalists to 60, a major milestone in The Prize’s efforts to uncover and elevate the most promising climate solutions around the world. The Prize has also helped unlock more than £75 million in direct and in-kind support for Finalists since its founding in 2020.

The Prize is focused on discovering, spotlighting, and helping scale innovative solutions that the world needs if we are to collectively achieve critical environmental goals. Solutions selected align to the five ‘Earthshots’ simple, ambitious, and aspirational goals defining the world we wish to build for future generations: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build A Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate.

For The Earthshot Prize to Clean Our Air, the 2024 Finalists are:

1. GAYO Ghana: A youth-led organization that uses its “zero waste model” to drive behavioural change in waste management practices across Africa that cut greenhouse gas emissions and particle pollution while bringing additional income to communities. Their plan to scale would reduce air pollution by 70percent and make them the leading model for waste management on the continent.
2. light, Pan-Africa: A successful company on track to transform the lives of one billion people by providing affordable and clean solar home systems that provide electricity and replace polluting kerosene lamps and dirty stoves. Operating across Sub-Saharan Africa, India and over 60 additional countries, d.light is already one of the world’s largest solar home system providers and continues to rapidly improve access to clean energy.
3. MYCL, Indonesia: A company tackling two major problems: crop-waste burning and harmful leather production, both which pollute the air and damage quality of life. They take crop waste – which is typically burned – and use a unique mushroom base to convert it into a leather alternative. They are scaling rapidly via key partnerships with major fashion designers and creating local jobs for farmers and artisans.

For The Earthshot Prize to Protect and Restore Nature, the 2024 Finalists are:

1. Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance, Ecuador: An alliance of 30 indigenous nations that collectively stand together to protect 86 million acres of critical Amazon rainforest – an area the size of Germany – and advocate for a regenerative bioeconomy.
2. NatureMetrics, UK: A global intelligence start-up in environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling on a mission to make biodiversity monitoring accessible to all. Using eDNA technology to identify species populations and report environmental and conservation impacts, they have the potential to unleash system-level change in nature conservation and restoration.
3. Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, Kazakhstan: An organization that has achieved what was thought impossible the rapid recovery of a large animal from the brink of extinction. Partnering with governments and indigenous communities to restore Kazakhstan’s Steppe grassland, Altyn Dala’s work to deliver the comeback of the Saiga antelope is one of the greatest nature restoration successes ever recorded.

For The Earthshot Prize to Revive Our Oceans, the 2024 Finalists are:

1. High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, Global: A groundbreaking alliance of 119 countries with the grandest goal of any Finalist to date – to protect 30percent of the land and oceans by 2030, by identifying technical, financial and knowledge gaps and connecting governments with technical assistance and funding. They’ve already achieved a major milestone with the adoption of this “30×30” target in the 2022 UN Global Biodiversity Framework.

1. MiAlgae, UK: A company offering a circular economy solution to the problem of sourcing marine Omega-3s from fish oil, which requires catching large quantities of wild fish simply to feed the farmed fish that we consume. Using a patented fermentation process and whisky by-products, MiAlgae grows nutrient-rich microalgae as a direct source of Omega-3s for aquaculture feed. Their innovative approach makes the solution highly scalable and cost-efficient, reducing the need to rely on wild fish and offering a sustainable alternative for the industry.

3. Coast 4C, Philippines: A social enterprise that aims to build the world’s largest supply of regenerative seaweed, benefiting marginalized coastal fishing communities by transforming their harvest and providing a market to sell the seaweed at profits to lift them out of poverty.

For The Earthshot Prize to Build A Waste-Free World, the 2024 Finalists are:

1. Natural Fiber Welding, USA: A company that creates biodegradable natural fibers and ingredients to replace plastics with wide applications in fashion, footwear, automotive and more. NFW’s non-toxic processes benefit farmers and reduce carbon emissions by 90percent, compared to plastics.
2. Ferment’Up, France: A company that upcycles skins and seeds from fruits and vegetables using dry fermentation to create highly nutritious ingredients from food waste, cutting carbon emissions and drastically reducing water use.
3. Keep It Cool, Kenya: A company that is tackling problems with proper refrigeration and cold-chain logistics across Africa by offering solar-powered refrigeration solutions that cut post-harvest waste by 25percent and by connecting smallholder farmers and fishers to a centralized online marketplace.

For The Earthshot Prize to Fix Our Climate, the 2024 Finalists are:

1. Equatic, USA: Using breakthrough technology, this early-stage company uses a process called seawater electrolysis to remove carbon dioxide from the ocean 99,000 times faster than nature alone. The process creates a byproduct called green hydrogen, a desirable clean fuel whose sale could support its carbon removal operations.
2. Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems, USA: A company that takes excess heat from heavy industrial processes, like creating cement and steel, and converts the heat waste into electricity. ATS’s unique heat waste capture technology has the potential to avoid a gigatonne of CO2 waste by 2050.
3. Build Up Nepal, Nepal: A social enterprise that has developed an earthquake-resilient brick with 75percent lower carbon emissions compared to traditional clay-fired bricks. Homes built with these bricks are affordable and have been proven to withstand earthquakes.

The five Winners of this year’s Prize will be selected by Prince William and his fellow members of the prestigious Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse group of individuals dedicated to championing urgent and innovative action to protect the climate and our natural environment. The Earthshot Prize Council is chaired by The Earthshot Prize Board of Trustees Chair, Dame Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris Agreement.

Members of The Earthshot Prize Council are Prince William, Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Cate Blanchett, Sir David Attenborough, Indra Nooyi, Stella McCartney, José Andrés, Wanjira Mathai, Nemonte Nenquimo, Luisa Neubauer, Naoko Yamazaki, Ernest Gibson, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The 2024 Earthshot Prize Winners will be announced at the fourth Earthshot Prize Awards, taking place on Wednesday 6 November in Cape Town, South Africa. The awards ceremony will be part of Earthshot Week in partnership with MultiChoice Group and will comprise of a series of events convening global leaders, investors, philanthropists, businesses, and NGOs to explore opportunities with The Earthshot Prize Winners and Finalists and work together to address the roadblocks preventing solutions and sectors from speeding to scale.

The Finalists’ eligibility for one of five £1 million prizes is only the beginning of their Earthshot journey. Each Finalist will receive dedicated mentorship, resources and technical support to help accelerate the growth of their solution during the Earthshot Prize Fellowship Programme.

That support includes access to the Prize’s robust network of influential businesses, investors, and climate experts, including The Earthshot Prize’s Global Alliance of Partners, comprised of some of the world’s largest businesses, donors, investors and environmental organizations committed to climate action.

Finalists will also have access to Launchpad, Earthshot’s bespoke online innovative finance platform to matchmake Earthshot solutions to a growing community of members made up of mission-aligned donors and investors seeking to speed proven environmental solutions to scale.

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