Earthshot Prize: Prince William announces finalists

Finalists of a £1m prize created by Prince William, to repair the planet, have been announced.

The Earthshot Prize will be awarded to five winners who have all come up with solutions to some of the world's current environmental problems, such as climate change and pollution.

Fifteen finalists have been picked from more than 750 nominations, from every continent in the world.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony on 17 October and each will receive £1 million and special support to work on their environmental plans.

How Prince William's Earthshot Prize aims to save our planet

Who are the finalists?

Fourteen-year-old Vinisha Umashankar has made the final 15

The 15 finalists have been split into five categories. They are "Protect and Restore Nature", "Clean our Air", "Revive our Oceans", "Build a Waste-Free World" and "Fix our Climate".

One of the finalists for the "Clean our Air" category is 14-year-old Vinisha Umashankar from India.

She is described as an innovator and activist who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart with the potential to improve air quality across India.

Her solar-powered ironing cart is a clean alternative to the charcoal powered street irons that press clothes for millions of people living in India each day.

Vinisha's solar powered cart replaces dirty charcoal with clean energy from the sun. Five hours of sunshine gives the iron an impressive six hours of pressing power.

A finalist in Australia has created 'Living Seawall' panels to bring marine life back to coastal sea defences

Other finalists' designs include; a breakthrough in coral farming to help restore our world's dying coral reefs, a tiny water treatment plant that turns 98% of wastewater into clean water, solar-powered energy capsules that make electricity affordable and accessible in energy-poor communities, and a conservation project that protects gorillas.

In Milan, a city-wide idea has cut food waste, while tackling hunger.

Prince William said: "I am honoured to introduce the 15 innovators, leaders, and visionaries who are the first ever Finalists for The Earthshot Prize.

"They are working with the urgency required in this decisive decade for life on Earth and will inspire all of us with their optimism in our ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history."

What is the Earthshot prize?

The Duke of Cambridge was inspired to establish a global environmental prize to tackle climate change so he could "look my children in the eye and say that I did my bit".

Prince William's vision for The Earthshot Prize began in September 2018 during a visit to Namibia.

In an introduction to a book about the Earthshot Prize, he wrote: "You might be wondering how I went from a 5am start to catch a fleeting glimpse of a shy black rhino in the north-west corner of Namibia, to building a team to deliver the most ambitious environmental prize in history."

The aim of Prince William's Earthshot Prize is to recognise ideas and technologies that can safeguard the planet

The prince then described how he felt he had to act after returning home: "The headlines were dominated by a sense that world leaders were not moving fast enough."

He added that countries blaming each other for the world's climate problems has been "too negative, too overwhelming", saying that there was a "real risk that people would switch off".

Explaining how he was inspired by wildlife conservation in Namibia, the prince said: "It's a prime example of how a simple, positive solution can have wide-reaching benefits for both humans and nature.

"Most importantly of all, it is a success story that can be replicated and scaled. I wanted to find a way to bottle that innovation and community spirit and mass-produce it globally".

The Earthshot Prize was inspired by the "Moonshot" challenge set by former US President John F Kennedy, who in 1962 had an ambition of putting man on the moon within a decade. Something that the US went on to achieve in 1969.

William said: "I wanted to recapture Kennedy's Moonshot spirit of human ingenuity, purpose and optimism, and turn it with laser-sharp focus and urgency on to the most pressing challenge of our time - repairing our planet."

Every year from 2021 until the end of the decade, winners in five categories will be selected by the Prince William and a judging panel with the hope that their ideas "will improve life for us all".