Just In: Kensington Palace issues Prince William ‘urgent’ message amid big changes

Prince William delivered a passionate message to the public as the as the future king revealed some crucial changes that have to be made for a great impact.

The Prince of Wales, who founded the Earthshot Prize in 2020, will be marking a big milestone for his project as it comes up at its halfmark.

King Charles’s eldest son sat down to address the public with a powerful speech and stressed that this is the time to change the future.

“I sat under this oak tress five years ago, soon after we launched The Earthshot Prize. The planet, the only home we have, needed our help. The scientists made it clear that we had to make significant changes by 2030,” he said.

William expressed that at the time “a decade felt like a long time” as “George was seven, Charlotte five and Louis two; the thought of them in 2030 felt a lifetime away”.

“But today, as we stand halfway through this critical decade, 2030 feels very real,” he continued.

The Earthshot Prize was founded because this decade matters. 2030 is a threshold by which future generations will judge us; it is the point at which our actions, or lack of them, will have shaped forever the trajectory of our planet.”

The selection process for this year’s cohort involved nearly 2,500 nominations submitted through the programme’s network of 575 nominators spanning 72 nations.

The Earthshot Prize ceremony will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next month, on November 5. The five finalists this year will receive £1M each to scale their impact.

“I am deeply proud of what The Earthshot Prize has done in its first five years, and I’m enormously excited for the next five,” William noted. “Not just the new finalists we’ll welcome into out network, but to see the continued impact of our 60 existing Finalists.”

He added, “Together, they are moving us towards achieving vital global goals that will improve and secure lives and livelihoods for all of us.