William announces Earthshot Prize 2025 winners in Rio ceremony

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

Prince William said their work was “proof that progress is possible” at the awards ceremony held at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday evening.

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

Among those presenting the award were Brazilian football legend Cafu, Olympic gymnast Rebeca Andrade and former Formula 1 pilot Sebastian Vettel.

Kylie Minogue’s performance included many hit songs such as Padam, Padam and Can’t Get You Out of My Head. Singer Shawn Mendes and Brazilian pop queen Anitta were also in a joyful mood.

The Earthshot Prize supports environmentally friendly projects from around the world and awards five winners each year with a £1 million grant to scale up their ideas aimed at repairing the world’s climate.

Organizers of the initiative were inspired by former US President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot project, which challenged scientists to safely take astronauts to the Moon and back.

Prince William, president of the Earthshot Prize, spoke at the award ceremony hosted by award-winning Brazilian broadcaster Luciano Huck.

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

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

“We set out to tackle environmental challenges head on and make real, lasting changes that will protect life on Earth.”

There are five World Beats or goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean Our Air; Revive Our Oceans; Build a World Without Waste; and Fix Our Climate.

The future king has devoted himself to this endeavor for 10 years, and Rio marks the halfway point of this initiative.

This year, approximately 2,500 nominations were submitted from 72 countries. Among them, 15 finalists were selected and five winners were determined among them.

• Protect and Repair Nature: re.green in Brazil makes protecting the Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s most important ecosystems, financially feasible
• Clean Our Air: The city of Bogota has demonstrated how public policy can bring lasting change, through clean air zones and the revegetation of degraded areas in Colombia’s capital.
• Revive Our Oceans: The High Seas Treaty is a global ocean initiative that will, among other things, set out clear measures to protect marine life and will come into force from January 2026.
• Build a World Without Waste: Lagos Fashion Week in Nigeria is redefining the industry, with every designer looking to showcase their commitment to sustainable practices.
• Fix Our Climate: Friendship is dedicated to helping vulnerable communities in Bangladesh with many issues, including access to public services, healthcare, education, and preparedness for natural disasters.

re.green CEO Thiago Picolo said winning the Protect and Restore Nature award put the organization “on the right track”.

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

Calling the winners “innovators,” Prince William described the Earthshot Prize as “a mission driven by the kind of extraordinary optimism we feel here tonight.”

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

Christiana Figueres, president of the board of trustees, said they were building a “global legacy”.

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

“Their 2030 targets are extremely ambitious, but their impact to date, plans in place and determination fuel my optimism.”

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

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

On Tuesday, in a speech at the United for Wildlife conference, he criticized criminals for their involvement in the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

He also traveled to the small island of Paqueta, where he met local people, learned about mangrove conservation and planted tree saplings.

On Thursday, he will travel to Belem in the Amazon rainforest, where he will address COP30, the UN’s annual climate change meeting.