Africa holds a special place in the Prince of Wales’ heart; his relationship with the continent dates back decades.
It is where his father, the King, brought a bereaved 15-year-old William and his younger brother, Harry, following the tragic death of their mother in 1997.
“It’s somewhere I found comfort as a teenager,” William has revealed, and his public work continues to pull him back.
In 2005, Prince William chose conservation charity, Tusk, as one of his first patronages - an organisation that aims to “accelerate the impact of African-driven conservation”.
Prince William's 'powerful' Earthshot prize shows the royal is modernising the monarchy
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Almost 20 years later, the Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize is also being held in Africa for the first time - finding, scaling and accelerating solutions to repair our planet.
He is also coinciding the trip to Cape Town, South Africa, with a ‘United for Wildlife’ summit - his umbrella organisation which is tackling the illegal wildlife trade.
The Prince of Wales wants to provide a platform to scale environmental solutions so they can have a real impact on repairing the planet.
Earlier this year, I was with The Prince of Wales at the Oval cricket ground in South London as he excitedly spotlighted the successes of previous Earthshot winner, Notpla - a company which has found a way to create a biodegradable plastic-like substance, made out of seaweed.
It completely quashes the need for single-use plastic in food containers, and now is in talks with British Airways to supply the product on the UK’s flagship airline.
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Back in March, Prince William was highlighting a landmark deal between Notpla and Levy UK + Ireland that is seeing their seaweed-based packaging used across 50 stadiums, racecourses, arenas and event spaces across the UK and Ireland.
The partnership is expected to see 75 million plastic-free disposable foodservice packaging items, potentially having a huge impact on the amount of waste.
This is the power Prince William’s Earthshot Prize is already having, just four years in.
The Prince of Wales is sometimes criticised for carrying out fewer public engagements than other working royals, but I understand his work behind the scenes has been pivotal in securing deals such as this, potentially having a positive impact on the planet for future generations.
It could be argued Prince William is modernising the monarchy; arguably cutting ribbons doesn’t justify its existence anymore.
It was way back in 2018 where the Prince’s Earthshot journey began in Namibia, where he realised the power of innovation.
The Prince of Wales founded the Earthshot Prize in 2020Getty“The power of innovative, positive solutions to environmental problems could drive transformative change for humans and nature,” the Prince has said. “[Africa was the] founding inspiration behind The Earthshot Prize,” he continued.
The power of Africa’s magic, it appears, also runs through Prince William’s personal life; it was Kenya where he proposed to his future wife, Catherine Middleton (now the Princess of Wales) in 2010.
It was inevitable that the environmental prize, named after President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ (solving the seemingly impossible task to put a man on the moon in the 1960’s), would one day be held in Africa.
In Cape Town this week, Table Mountain and other landmarks will be lit up in green.
The awards ceremony, held in a reusable eco-dome in the South African city, will be broadcast to potentially millions of people across the continent, with 1,000 environmental South Africans invited to be part of the live audience.
“I firmly believe that if we come together with collective ambition and urgency, we can reshape the future of our Planet,” Prince William says.
A damaged planet is a global challenge to solve, and the Prince of Wales is using his role to bring different countries, cultures and communities around the table to find new solutions to create a more sustainable world.
