The five winners of the fourth annual Earthshot Prize 2024 were announced in their five respective categories, with each winner claiming a £1 million prize to support their projects and cause, Cape {town} Etc reports.
In the five categories were three nominees each, making it a total of 15 nominees for the Earthshot Prize 2024.
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The five categories for the Earthshot Prize 2024 were: Fix Our Climate, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World, Protect & Restore Nature and Clean Our Air.
The ceremony, hosted in Cape Town by award-winning American actor and singer Billy Porter and South African TV presenter Bonang Matheba, also showcased musical performances, namely Diamond Platnumz, Uncle Waffles and the Ndlovu Youth Choir.
Fix Our Climate
Presented by model and television personality Heidi Klum, Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems (ATS) from the United States was announced as the winner for the ‘Fix Our Climate’ category.
ATS presents a ‘simple, safe and reliable’ solution to convert industrial waste heat into electricity for use in hard-to-abate industries, with the potential to save gigatonnes of CO2.
Kelly Adams, ATS CEO, went on to collect the prize.
Revive Our Oceans
High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC), a joint initiative from France, the UK and Costa Rica, took home the prize for the ‘Revive Our Oceans’ category, presented by actress Nina Dobrev and Rita El Zaghloul, HAC director collecting the prize.
HAC has focused on engaging with 120 governments around the world to ‘officially protect 30%’ of the Earth’s land and oceans by 2030.
Build a Waste-Free World
The ‘Build a Waste-free World’, presented by rapper and singer Tobe Nwigwe, was awarded to the Kenyan initiative Keep IT Cool (KIT).
KIC has provided sustainable refrigeration and smart distribution solutions for small-scale farmers and fishers.
Through this type of refrigeration, the shelf life of produce can be extended, which in turn reduces spoilage while also creating ‘more stable incomes’.
The prize was collected by Francis Nderitu, KIT founder and managing director.
Protect & Restore Nature
The ‘Protect & Restore Nature’ prize was claimed by the Kazakhstani Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, with the award being presented by fashion model Winnie Harlow.
The initiative has previously saved the critically endangered Saiga Antelope from extinction, which consequently transformed into ‘one of the world’s largest conservation projects’, which is to protect and restore Kazakhstan’s Golden Steppe.
For this award, Vera Voronova, Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative executive director, collected the prize.
Clean Our Air
Former Springbok Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira presented the ‘Clean Our Air’ award to the Ghana-based Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO).
GAYO has set its sights on improving behavioural change in order to help communities clean up waste, create jobs and build infrastructure to ‘support circular waste management’ across the African continent.
Desmond Alugnoa, GAYO co-founder and manager, collected the final prize of the night.
Prince William concluded the ceremony with a heartfelt speech, encouraging citizens around the world to make a change for the future of the planet and sustainability, followed by local musical talent Ndlovu Youth Choir performing a rendition of Toto’s hit song Africa.
Watch the entire ceremony below:
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Prince William highlights Africa as inspiration for The Earthshot Prize
Picture: Pool / Getty Images
