Prince William Unveils Earthshot Prize 2025 Winners in Rio de Janeiro

Fri Dec 05 2025 05:08:08 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

At a star-studded ceremony in Brazil, Prince William announced the winners of the Earthshot Prize 2025, celebrating innovative environmental initiatives.

The Earthshot Prize, founded by Prince William, named its 2025 winners in Rio de Janeiro, recognizing impactful projects aimed at addressing climate change. Each winner receives £1 million to enhance their initiatives, with categories focusing on nature conservation, air quality, ocean revival, waste reduction, and climate action. The event featured notable attendees and performances, furthering the legacy of collective environmental action.

A project to restore tropical forests and a global ocean treaty initiative are among the winners of this year's Earthshot Prize.

The winners, named at an awards ceremony in Brazil on Wednesday, will each be given £1m to scale up their projects to repair the climate.

The Prince of Wales, who founded the global environmental award in 2020, said the winners were an inspiration and proof that progress is possible.

Brazilian football legend Cafu, Olympian Rebeca Andrade and former Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel were among the presenters, while pop stars Kylie Minogue and Shawn Mendes performed at the ceremony in Rio de Janeiro's Museum of Tomorrow.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan were also in attendance.

Prince William, who is the president of the prize, told those gathered at the ceremony that he had founded the award with the aim of making this the decade in which we transformed our world for the better.

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

Inspired by former US President John F Kennedy's Moonshot project, the prize celebrates five Earthshots, or goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean Our Air; Revive Our Oceans; Build a Waste-Free World; and Fix Our Climate.

This year, nearly 2,500 nominees from 72 countries were submitted, from which 15 finalists were selected and five winners chosen.

Protect and Restore Nature: re.green, in Brazil, focuses on the financially viable protection of the Atlantic Forest.
Clean Our Air: Bogotá, Colombia, demonstrated how public policy can effect change by creating clean air zones.
Revive Our Oceans: The High Seas Treaty aims to establish measures for marine life conservation.
Build a Waste-Free World: Lagos Fashion Week in Nigeria mandates sustainable practices from designers.
Fix Our Climate: Friendship assists vulnerable communities in Bangladesh with services, education, and disaster preparedness.

Chief executive of re.green, Thiago Picolo, stated that winning the Protect & Restore Nature prize validates their direction, as it facilitates crucial conversations for future funding. Prince William highlighted the winners as innovators, emphasizing the collective optimism present at the event.

Earlier, Prince William visited the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, where he took a memorable photograph like his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, did 34 years prior. His visit to Brazil has concentrated on climate and environmental issues, culminating in his upcoming speech at COP30 in the Amazon rainforest.