Royal Earthshot contest gives hope in climate battle

A £50m annual competition launched by Prince William is showing that the fight to stop climate change can be won. 

That’s the view of Midlands energy expert Ron Fox after the Duke of Cambridge announced the five winners in the Earthshot prize at an awards ceremony in Boston, USA, this month. They will each receive £1m to develop their ideas. 

“There are a lot of people who think protecting the environment is too big a problem for them and it is up to world government to come up with solutions,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park. 

“But these individuals and groups prove that everyone’s ideas can have wide-reaching benefits for both humans and nature.”  

This year’s winners were chosen from a list of 15 finalists by a panel that includes Prince William, Sir David Attenborough, actress Cate Blanchett, footballer Dani Alves, Fijian activist Ernest Gibson and singer Shakira. 

The Earthshot Prize was inspired by the Moonshot project set up by former US President John F Kennedy who challenged the world in 1962 to put a man on the moon within a decade. America achieved that in 1969.  

Here are the five winning projects.  

Clean Our Air: Kenya’s Mukuru Clean Stoves is a female-founded business with mostly female staff producing stoves that are fired by processed biomass made from charcoal, wood and sugarcane instead of solid fuels. This will cut air pollution and reduce the number of accidents that claim four million lives each year. 

Protect and Restore Nature: In Kheyti, India, Kaushik Kappagantulu’s Greenhouse-in-a-Box helps small-hold farmers protect their crops from extreme weather and pests, in a country that has been severely impacted by climate change. 

The results are dramatic. Plants in this project require 98 per cent less water than those outdoors and fewer pesticides while yields are seven-times higher. 

Ninety per cent cheaper than a standard greenhouse, they are more than doubling farmers’ incomes, helping them invest more in their farms and their children’s education. 

Build a Waste-free World: UK firm Notpla, which makes natural biodegradable plastic out of seaweed, was founded by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier while they were students at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. Hackney-based Notpla’s products from seaweed include a coating for takeaway boxes and a rigid plastic alternative. This year the firm has made more than a million recyclable food boxes for takeaway delivery platform JustEat. Manufacturing plastic adds to greenhouse gases, and when thrown away can harm animals and the environment. 

Revive Our Oceans: The Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia were chosen for a programme which has trained more than 60 women in both traditional and digital methods in ocean conservation. 

Fix Our Climate: In Oman, Talal Hasan’s project 44.01 promises to turn carbon dioxide into peridotite, a rock that is found in abundance both in Oman and globally. It offers a low-cost and safe alternative to traditional methods of storing carbon, which include burying it underground in disused oil wells. 

This is the second set of annual Earthshot Prizes awarded and five prizes of £1m each are being awarded every year until the end of the decade with Prince William and a judging panel selecting the finalists. 

For more information on environmental ideas for the home call Ron on 01782 756995.

Caption: The official Earthshot logo.