The Prince of Wales has announced that Mumbai in India will host the next Earthshot Prize in November 2026
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NEED TO KNOW
- The next venue for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize has been announced
- William, 43, is taking his environmental prize to Mumbai, India
- It will be the sixth iteration of the awards, taking them to the country that has provided more Earthshot finalists and winners than any other in the world
Prince William is making plans to head back to an exciting city he visited a decade ago with Kate Middleton.
The Prince of Wales, 43, is taking his Earthshot Prize to Mumbai, India, in November 2026. He and Princess Kate wen there in 2016 as part of a successful and extensive tour of the country.
The Prince will be expected to travel to the awards, which celebrate innovators and investors looking to find answers to some of the planet’s environmental problems. Mumbai follows the inaugural awards in London, in 2021, followed by Boston, Singapore, Cape Town, South Africa, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, all of which William has attended. Kate, 44, has missed the last two, but attended London and Boston in 2022.
The announcement was made on Tues. Feb. 17, at the first Mumbai Climate Week. It is a fitting place for the awards and the series of events that take place around it, as organizers point out there have been more Earthshot Prize winners and finalists from India than any other country.
Aaron Chown-Pool/Getty
The awards are designed to inspire and engender new ideas and initiatives — and optimism that climate change and other challenges can be combated. Earthshot Prize organizers say India and Mumbai in particular are well-placed to lead the change, in Asia and beyond.
William’s brainchild — which sees winners in five categories take home $1.4 million in backing — is set to run for a decade, rewarding scalable ideas and projects with prize money and a network of financial supporters and mentors.
Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace
“We must continue to look to the future with urgency and optimism, which is why I am delighted that Mumbai will host The Earthshot Prize 2026. India is one of the world’s most important forces for climate and nature,” Prince William said in a statement. “What succeeds in India at scale has the power to inspire progress everywhere.”
He added, “With the largest population of young people in the world, there is a real sense of momentum – to not only imagine a better future, but to inspire change and make it a reality. Together, we can rise to meet our greatest challenge, to repair and restore our planet by 2030."
Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra that includes Mumbai, added in a statement, "The Earthshot Prize is the world's most prestigious environmental award and I'm proud to announce that it will be hosted in Mumbai in November.”
“Sustainability and climate action remain top priorities for Maharashtra, and The Earthshot Prize will create global attention for India’s leadership and commitment to turning our goals into meaningful action on the ground.”
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Earthshot was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ mission of the 1960s and William has the same groundbreaking ambition — to find ideas for action to save the planet from its most pressing environmental problems. Since its inception in 2020, Earthshot has identified more than 5,600 emerging environmental innovations from 156 countries.
Each winner in five categories — Protect and Restore Nature, Clean our Air, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World; and Fix our Climate — receives $1.4 million. But alongside the winners, some 75 finalists have been recognized and brought into the Earthshot community, collectively securing more $500 million in investment and philanthropy to find funding and support as they hope to take their ideas forward.
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