‘Exciting’ 15 finalists in Prince’s contest to help save the planet

The 15 finalists in Prince William’s 2024 Earthshot Prize have been announced in New York and their projects are very innovative says Midlands green energy expert Ron Fox.

The winners of each of the five categories will be given a £1 million prize at the awards ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 6, 2024.

“All the entries are exciting plans to help save the planet,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science and Innovation Park, “and I am looking forward to finding out the five successful schemes.”

The Earthshot Prize was created by Prince William and The Royal Foundation. It’s inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot mission and aims to find innovative solutions to the earth’s environmental challenges.

It focuses on three main interests – Protecting areas of high biodiversity such as forests, wetlands, peatlands and wildlife corridors; Restoring damaged ecosystems and thirdly feeding people while protecting nature.

The annual event, which began in December 2020, has a global panel of 59 scientific, academic and subject matter experts who chose this year’s 15 finalists from nominations from all over the world.

All the finalists will receive mentorship, resources and technical support from The Earthshot Prize Fellowship Programme to help accelerate the growth of their ground-breaking solutions.
In the same week as the Earthshot finalists were announced Prince William, in a video message to a biodiversity event at the UN general assembly in New York, called on the modern world to make peace with nature.

He said people had to stop living at odds with the natural world and to improve the environment by the end of the decade. He said the destruction of the ecosystems was the most pressing existential threat the world faces.

The five categories are: Protect and restore nature; Clean our air; Revive our oceans; Build a waste-free world and Fix our climate.

And the finalists in the five sections are:

Clean Air:
MYCL (Indonesia): Using palm oil waste to create an alternative to leather.

d.light (Africa): Replacing hazardous kerosene lamps with solar powered lanterns.

Green Africa Youth Organisation (Ghana/Uganda): Turning waste into compost and charcoal briquettes.

Revive Our Oceans:

Coast 4C (Australia/Philippines): Sustainable seaweed farming.

MiAlgae (Scotland) Growing algae rich in omega-3, which are polyunsaturated fats that perform important functions and which the body can’t produce enough of.

High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People: Global campaign group.

Protect and Restore Nature:

Altyn Dala Conservation (Kazakhstan): Saving the endangered Salga antelope.

NatureMetrics (UK): Gathering environmental DNA.

Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance (Ecuador) Working to protect 86 million acres of forest.

Building a waste free world:

Natural Fiber Welding (USA): Replacing plastic with natural materials.

Ferment’Up (France): Using fermentation to transform food waste into nutritional ingredients.

Keep IT Cool (Kenya): Helping fishermen with solar-powered fridges.

Fix Our Climate:

Equatic (USA): Using an electrolysis process to remove carbon from the ocean.

Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems (USA): Turning waste heat into energy.

Buildup Nepal: Making low-carbon bricks.

For more details about green energy call Ron on 0845 474 6641 or go to www.noreus.co.uk

Caption: The Earthshot logo.