US
‘A new call to action’: Prince William and ex-New York mayor Bloomberg team up for climate project
Prince William and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg have teamed up to highlight the importance of tackling climate change.
The Duke of Cambridge and billionaire businessman Mr Bloomberg will be working together on the prince’s environmental initiative, called the Earthshot Prize.
Mr Bloomberg, whose estimated net worth is more than $60bn (£46.3m), has joined William’s initiative as a global adviser to the winners of the prize.
The inaugural Earthshot Prize Awards will be held in October at Alexandra Palace
In an article for USA Today, the pair wrote: “An hour of change and challenge is upon us again, but this time the question isn’t whether we can reach the moon. It’s whether we can save the Earth.”
The prince and Mr Bloomberg described the prize as “a new call to action to the world”.
Mr Bloomberg, who founded the global provider of financial data Bloomberg LP, is the UN special envoy for climate ambition and solutions.
He was New York’s mayor between 2002 and 2013, running on a Republican ticket, but campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
He eventually dropped out a committed $100m (£ 77.2m) to helping Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump.
Mr Bloomberg has joined the duke’s initiative as a global adviser to the winners of the prize.
Mr Bloomberg tweeted on Tuesday that he was glad to take on the role of global adviser on the Earthshot prize.
“I look forward to drawing on my network of philanthropic, business and government leaders to help scale and replicate the winners’ solutions,” he said.
The £50m Earthshot Prize was launched by William in September and aims to recognise solutions, ideas and technologies that “repair the planet”.
It draws on former US president John F Kennedy’s Moon Shot project, which William and Mr Bloomberg say “created new jobs, launched new companies and spurred technological innovations”.
“The race to defeat climate change and protect the environment will be no different,” they wrote.
“The same steps that advance technology and cut carbon pollution also create jobs in new industries, while protecting public health and the natural resources we all depend on – changes that will benefit generations to come.”
One of the first finalists for the prize is Vinisha Umashankar, from Tamil Nadu, India. She has designed a solar-powered ironing cart
Every year from 2021 until the end of the decade, winners of the five Earthshot prizes will each receive £1m to be used for their ideas.
Entrants from around the world have been whittled down to 15 finalists, including a teenager from India who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart and the nation of Costa Rica, which has pioneered a project paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems.
This year’s winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London in October.
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