The Earthshot Prize announced its 2025 winners during an awards ceremony held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday. The selected projects, which include initiatives for tropical forest restoration and a global ocean treaty, will each receive £1 million to support their scaling efforts. Prince William, the founder of the global environmental award established in 2020, delivered remarks during the event.
The ceremony featured various presenters, including Brazilian football legend Cafu, Olympian Rebeca Andrade, and former Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel. Musical performances were provided by Kylie Minogue, Shawn Mendes, Seu Jorge, and Gilberto Gil. Notable attendees included UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, and London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan.
About the Earthshot Prize
Prince William founded the Earthshot Prize in 2020 with the stated objective of addressing environmental challenges and promoting lasting changes to protect Earth. The award structure, which is designed to run for 10 years, draws inspiration from former US President John F. Kennedy's Moonshot project. Rio marks the halfway point of this initiative.
The prize is structured around five specific goals, known as Earthshots:
- Protect and Restore Nature
- Clean Our Air
- Revive Our Oceans
- Build a Waste-Free World
- Fix Our Climate
For the 2025 cycle, nearly 2,500 nominations were submitted from 72 countries. From these, 15 finalists were selected, leading to the identification of the five winners.
Earthshot Prize 2025 Winners
The five winners for the 2025 Earthshot Prize are:
- Protect and Restore Nature: re.green (Brazil) – This project focuses on making the protection of the Atlantic Forest, a major ecosystem, financially sustainable.
- Clean Our Air: Bogotá (Colombia) – Recognized for public policies that have implemented clean air zones and re-greened degraded areas within the Colombian capital.
- Revive Our Oceans: The High Seas Treaty – A global ocean initiative designed to establish measures for marine life conservation, scheduled to take effect from January 2026.
- Build a Waste-Free World: Lagos Fashion Week (Nigeria) – An initiative that promotes sustainable practices within the fashion industry, requiring participating designers to demonstrate commitment to sustainability.
- Fix Our Climate: Friendship (Bangladesh) – Dedicated to assisting vulnerable communities in Bangladesh by facilitating access to public services, health, education, and natural disaster preparedness.
Thiago Picolo, CEO of re.green, stated that winning the Protect & Restore Nature prize provides validation and facilitates discussions with financial providers. Prince William referred to the winners as "innovators" and described the Earthshot Prize as a "mission." Christiana Figueres, chair of the board of trustees, commented that the winners' 2030 aims are ambitious and expressed optimism regarding their potential impact.
Prince William's Engagements
During his visit to Brazil, Prince William met with the 15 finalists at the Christ the Redeemer statue. His five-day itinerary has focused on climate and environmental issues. Earlier, he addressed deforestation in the Amazon rainforest during a speech at the United for Wildlife conference. He also visited Paqueta island to learn about mangrove conservation and planted tree saplings. Prince William is scheduled to deliver a speech at COP30, the UN's annual climate change meeting, in Belem, Amazon rainforest.