Prince William, who marked the fifth Earthshot Prize ceremony and made a historic speech at the COP30 in Brazil, is already making big plans for his passion project.
The Prince of Wales is now willing to take his programme into a much bolder direction, an attempt to ruffle some feathers and start difficult conversations on a much more mainstream platform for the next iteration of the Awards.
The future king is determined to “engage with the world’s biggest polluters” and eyes to hold the sixth Earthshot Prize Awards in India, according to The Times royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah.
Moreover, William is also interested in holding the ceremony in China in the coming five years. A source noted that this is the “sign of his determination” from the royal for a significant change to save the planet. He had a “renewed sense of purpose” about taking the prize to China.
It is important to note that neither did Indian prime minister Narendra Modi nor President Xi of China attended the COP30 conference, which the supreme decision-making body which assesses progress on climate change in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
India and China are both signatories of the Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and their absence spoke volumes.
“We’d like to take Earthshot to every corner of the planet,” a royal source explained. “There are so many interesting things happening in India in the sector and the prince is looking forward to seeing it.”
Prince William believes that you can’t exclude a big chunk of the planet when thinking about fighting for its future”.
Meanwhile, King Charles has taken a rather different approach as he has never visited mainland China because of his views on the regime’s treatment of Tibet and its human rights record, according to The Sunday Times.
This would be a major switch in strategy for the future king especially given that the UK’s relationship with China, which has been ranked as the world’s largest polluter in terms of carbon emissions, have been quite strained. India comes close on the third rank in the list.
China and India are both densely populated countries and majority of the world’s consumer production takes place here with little to no regulation. It would be a challenge to convince either of the two countries to acquiesce with the demands and maintain eco-friendly protocols, especially given that it would make a dent in their revenues.
It remains to be seen how it all pans out with Earthshot Prize as it aims to find practical solutions to alleviate some of the most urgent issues faced by the environment.