Prince William Holds a Call With Boston's Mayor Ahead of The Earthshot Awards Coming to the U.S.
In December, Prince William and Kate will visit Boston for the second annual awards for the Prince’s environmental prize, Earthshot. And in preparation for the event, the Prince of Wales held a call with Boston’s Mayor, Michelle Wu, to discuss plans for the awards.
“His Royal Highness and Mayor Wu discussed Boston’s work on sustainability and ongoing preparations for the December event,” Kensington Palace said in a statement as a photograph of William on the call was released. Earlier this fall, Earthshot CEO Hannah Jones confirmed the awards ceremony will take place on December 2, and it is expected to coincide with a short visit by William and Kate to the U.S.
This will be the couple’s first visit to the U.S. since December 2014 and their first since Prince Harry and Meghan moved there after leaving royal life. Prince William has been scheduled to attend the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York in September but instead sent a recorded message after Queen Elizabeth died just a few days earlier.
The Earthshot Prize was launched by William in 2020 and will award five £1 million prizes to organizations and individuals with groundbreaking solutions for the challenges facing the planet over 10 years. The five categories, or “Earthshots,” are Protect and restore nature; Clean our air; Revive our oceans; Build a waste-free world; and Fix our climate. Held every year for a decade, Earthshot will eventually award £50 million in prize money and find 50 solutions to repair the planet.
The first awards, in 2021, were held in London and when Boston was announced as the host for the second event, Mayor Michelle Wu, said today that the city was “honored and excited.” “In Boston, we’re not just aiming to improve Boston’s ability to tackle climate change—we’re setting an example for how imaginative, community-driven climate leadership can reshape what’s possible,” she said. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation will serve as host partner for the event.
When Prince William launched the prize in October 2020, he spoke of harnessing “urgency” and “optimism” to find solutions for the environment. “I felt very much that there’s a lot of people wanting to do many good things for the environment and what they need is a bit of a catalyst, a bit of hope, a bit of positivity that we can actually fix what’s being presented,” the Prince said in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
Kensington Palace has described how the winners could be “a wide range of individuals, teams or collaborations—scientists, activists, economists, community projects, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities, and countries.” The Prize was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ challenge to land a man on the moon.
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