Prince William to hold star-studded ceremony for his first £50m Earthshot Prize Awards at Alexandra Palace in October – with judges including Shakira, Sir David Attenborough and Cate Blanchett
- Awards will be broadcast on BBC One internationally from London on October 17
- This is the first ceremony in the Duke of Cambridge’s decade-long competition
- The judges include Sir David Attenborough, Shakira and queen Rania of Jordan
Prince William will hold a star-studded ceremony for his inaugural £50million Earthshot Prize Awards at London’s Alexandra Palace later this year.
The first ceremony in Duke of Cambridge’s decade-long global environmental competition will be broadcast on BBC One in October, with a set of A-list judges set to join the show which will see winners handed £1million for an idea to protect the planet.
Sir David Attenborough, who has supported the project from the beginning, is a member of the Earthshot Prize council, which will choose the winners.
Fellow judges include actress Cate Blanchett, singer Shakira and Queen Rania of Jordan.
Organisers said the event, which will also be televised internationally, will feature ‘some of the world’s leading performers, all committed to repairing our planet’.
William, who hopes Earthshot will become ‘the Nobel prize of the environmental world’, announced 17th October ceremony in a trailer filmed by a drone camera.
Prince William’s inaugural £50million Earthshot Prize Awards will be held at Alexandra Palace and broadcast internationally from London on October 17
Footage shows the duke sporting an open-necked blue shirt standing alone in front of the ornate Alexandra Palace Rose Window.
It will be shown in London’s Piccadilly lights landmark in Piccadilly Circus at 8am today.
In the clip he says: ‘Join me for the first ever Earthshot Prize Awards, where we’ll unveil five global prizewinners and their game-changing solutions to repair our planet, on October 17th, here in London.’
The prize takes its inspiration from the late US president John F. Kennedy’s ambitious Moonshot lunar space programme of the 1960s, which helped advance mankind’s technological achievements.
William, who hopes Earthshot will become the Nobel prize of the environmental world, announced the ceremony in a trailer filmed by a drone camera
The duke met London mayor Sadiq Khan (left), who welcomed the ceremony as a ‘momentous occasion’ for the city, at Kensington Palace last week
It features five categories, or ‘Earthshots’, which organisers say if achieved by 2030 would improve life for all.
Every year from 2021 until the end of the decade, winners of the five Earthshots will each receive £1 million to be used for their solutions.
To mark the venue announcement, William said: ‘By hosting COP26 conference in Glasgow just weeks after our inaugural awards, the UK is helping lead the world in tackling climate change.
‘London is a fantastic location to showcase this leadership, spotlight the finalists and award our very first Earthshot Prize winners.’
The duke also met London mayor Sadiq Khan, who welcomed the ceremony as a ‘momentous occasion’ for the city, at Kensington Palace last week.