Prince William attends event celebrating The Earthshot Prize Launchpad in London on March 11, 2024.Photo:Belinda Jiao - WPA Pool/Getty
Belinda Jiao - WPA Pool/Getty
Prince Williamcontinued with royal duty after the Mother’s Day photo ofKate Middletoncaused controversy.
On Monday, the Prince of Wales, 41, stepped out at Frameless in London to attend a kickoff celebration for The Earthshot Prize Launchpad. The matchmaking platform was established to connect Earthshot innovators with investors and philanthropists, helping to accelerate the scaling of solutions from the environmental prize that William founded in 2020 to help repair the planet over the next decade.
TheEarthshot Prizedescribed the Launchpad unveiling as a “landmark” moment and outlined that 25 Earthshot solutions from six continents with funding needs exceeding $512 million are being highlighted during its pilot phase.
To date, Launchpad has drawn 135 investors and philanthropists to its curated database — an exciting sign of the potential ahead.
Prince William attends an event celebrating The Earthshot Prize Launchpad in London on March 11, 2024.Belinda Jiao - WPA Pool/Getty
Prince William gave a speech to celebrate the Earthshot Prize’s latest “landmark moment.”
“When I first started thinking about how I might contribute to the collective global effort to protect our planet in 2018, I knew that I wanted to mobilize the enormous power of innovators, wherever they are in the world,” he said. “From businesses, cities and governments; to activists, scientists and innovators, the ideas and ambition to set our planet on a healthier path do already exist.”
“But this is urgent. We are in the critical decade right now,” he continued. “And that is why, to have real impact, we must focus on supporting and developing as many solutions as possible and scale them at speed.”
Prince William attends an event celebrating the Earthshot Prize Launchpad in London on March 11, 2024.Belinda Jiao - WPA Pool/Getty
The Prince of Wales also said, “As Launchpad grows, we will continue to bring best-in-class innovations, sourced through our powerful search engine which identifies solutions around the world. But what we need now is the capital. We need you, investors and philanthropists, to join us in our mission. Join our community and invite your peers to be a part of this journey. Together, we can support our innovators to scale their solutions.”
“It is only through collective action that we will reach the ambitious 2030 targets we have set to save our planet,” he continued. “It is only through action that we will create a sustainable future for generations to come.”
This is thesecond Earthshot Prize-related outingfor Prince William in recent days. On Friday, he stepped out at The Kia Oval Cricket Ground in south London to learn how Notpla, a startup that won theBuild a Waste-Free Worldprize in 2020, is bringing their seaweed-based food packaging to over 50 sports and event venues across the U.K.
The Earthshot Prize outing on Monday marked Prince William’s second event of the day. After he was seenleaving Windsor Castlewith Princess Kate (PEOPLE understands that she was heading to a private appointment), William attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey withQueen Camillaand other members of the royal family.
The Prince of Wales and Queen Camilla, 76, lead the family asKing Charlespostpones public-facing duties while receivingcancer treatment.
Prince William’s presence at the Commonwealth Day service, the annual event that celebrates the 56 countries that comprise the Commonwealth of Nations, came just hours after Princess Kateapologized for the controversyaround the editing of a family photo. Mother’s Day was celebrated in the U.K. on Sunday, and the Princess of Wales, 42, issued asurprise statementafter multiple global photo agencies including the Associated Press, Getty Images and Reuters pulled the picture the palace released of the royal with her kids,Prince George, 10,Princess Charlotte, 8, andPrince Louis, 5.
Kate Middleton and her three children (L-R): Princes Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.The Prince and Princess of Wales/Instagram
The Prince and Princess of Wales/Instagram
Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage?Sign up for our free Royals newsletterto get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
Responding to the controversythe following day, Princess Kate said, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.”
The Princess of Wales signed the post with a “C” for Catherine, her full name, signaling the personal nature of the message.
source: people.com
