William announces 2025 Earthshot Prize winners at Rio ceremony

The Prince of Wales has revealed the five winners of this year’s environmental Earthshot Prize, calling them an “inspiration that gives us courage”.

Prince William said his work was “proof that progress is possible” during Wednesday night’s awards ceremony at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro.

Winners include a project to make South America’s Atlantic Forest financially viable and a global ocean treaty initiative aimed at conserving marine life.

Brazilian soccer legend Cafú, Olympic gymnast Rebeca Andrade and former Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel were among the award presenters.

A performance by Kylie Minogue included a medley of hits including Padam, Padam and Can’t Get You Out of My Head. The singer Shawn Mendes and the queen of Brazilian pop Anitta also made the atmosphere vibrate with joy.

The Earthshot Prize supports green projects around the world and annually awards each of the five winners a £1 million grant to scale up their ideas to fix the global climate.

The initiative’s organizers were inspired by former US President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot project, which challenged scientists to land astronauts on the Moon and return safely.

The awards ceremony, hosted by award-winning Brazilian broadcaster Luciano Huck, was hosted by Prince William, Chairman of the Earthshot Prize.

Political guests at the ceremony included Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan.

“When I founded the Earthshot Prize in 2020, we had a 10-year goal: to make this the decade in which we transform our world for the better,” he told attendees.

“We set out to address environmental issues head-on and make real, lasting changes that would protect life on Earth.”

There are five Earthshots or goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our air; Revive our oceans; Build a world free of waste; and fix our climate.

The future king has been committed to this for 10 years and Rio marks the midpoint of the initiative.

This year there were almost 2,500 nominees from 72 countries. Of them, 15 finalists were selected, from which the five winners were chosen.

• Protect and restore nature: re.green, in Brazil, is making the protection of one of the most important ecosystems in the world, the Atlantic Forest, financially viable
• Clean our air: The city of Bogotá has demonstrated how public policies can generate lasting changes, through means such as clean air zones and the greening of degraded areas in the Colombian capital.
• Revive Our Oceans: The High Seas Treaty is a global ocean initiative that will establish clear measures to conserve marine life, among other things, and will enter into force from January 2026.
• Build a waste-free world: Lagos Fashion Week in Nigeria is redefining the industry, and every designer who wants to showcase must show their commitment to sustainable practice.
• Fix our climate: Friendship is dedicated to helping vulnerable communities in Bangladesh for a multitude of things, from access to public services, health, education and natural disaster preparedness.

re.green CEO Thiago Picolo said winning the Protect & Restore Nature award puts the organization “on the right path.”

“Winning an award like this is validation for us, it helps us know that we are going in the right direction and facilitates the conversations we need to have with banks, capital providers and companies,” he said.

Referring to the winners as “innovators,” Prince William called the Earthshot Prize a “mission driven by the kind of extraordinary optimism we have felt here tonight.”

“There is much we can learn from their determination, their vision for scale and their unwavering belief that we can create a better world.”

Board president Christiana Figueres said they were building a “global legacy.”

“These winners are proof that the spirit of collective action born here in Rio continues to grow stronger, more determined and more urgent than ever.

“Their 2030 goals are deeply ambitious, but their impact to date, their plans in place and their tenacity fuel my optimism.”

Earlier in the day, Prince William met the 15 finalists during a visit to the statue of Christ the Redeemer, where he posed for a photograph in the same spot as his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, did 34 years ago.

But much of the prince’s five-day visit to Brazil has focused on the climate and environment.

On Tuesday, during a speech at the United for Wildlife conference, he criticized criminals for their role in deforesting the Amazon rainforest.

He also traveled to the small island of Paquetá, where he met locals, learned about mangrove conservation, and planted saplings.

On Thursday he will travel to Belem, in the Amazon rainforest, where he is scheduled to give a speech at COP30, the annual UN meeting on climate change.