Behind the Scenes of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize: Singapore ‘Took It Up a Notch,’ Says Photographer

New photos of Prince William at his Earthshot Prize ceremony in Singapore have been released

It's Prince William and Cate (Blanchett, that is!)

New behind-the-scenes photos of William’s Earthshot Prize ceremony in Singapore have been released, showing the Prince of Wales prepping his speech and grabbing a drink between duties as he greets Earthshot Prize Council Member actress Cate Blanchett.

According to royal photographer Chris Jackson, who has been backstage at the previous two award Earthshot Prize ceremonies — in London and Boston – this year's event was a success.

"Excited to share my ‘behind the scenes’ images from Prince William’s Earthshot Awards in Singapore this week - Always a special evening and a privilege to capture this intimate angle of such a ground-breaking event," Jackson said in an Instagram post. “London and Boston were incredible but Singapore took it up a notch."

Among the images that were released show William bending forward to shake Blanchett's hand and preparing for his end-of-show speech.

Releasing the images over the weekend, Jackson’s Instagram post helped herald the broadcast of the show which aired on PBS on Sunday evening.

And the release of the images came as William and wife Kate Middleton’s joint YouTube channel issued two new videos. One showed the couple scuba diving to coral in the Bahamas last year. The royal couple was visiting Earthshot Prize winner Coral Vita at the time, seeing how the sea’s restoration can be helped by harvesting and growing new coral. Then they issued a new illuminating video of the prince’s trip to Singapore.

At this year’s event, William told the audience, “I choose to believe that future generations will look back on this decade as the point at which we globally took collective action for our planet.”

“The moment we refused to accept the voices of denial and defeatism, and instead, became the architects of change towards a healthy and sustainable world.”

Winner of Revive Our Oceans, WildAid Marine Program, COO Meaghan Brosnan summed up the collaborative atmosphere when she told the audience, “Every single finalist who is in this room deserves to be on this stage. Conservation is a team sport guys and I am so glad that we are going to be entering this decade together. I can’t wait to see the magic that we make together.”

British High Commissioner Kara Owen echoed that sentiment when she told PEOPLE last week that the energy around the finalists was special. "They were really cheering each other on," Owen said. "There were big prizes at stake, but it is also much more than that. It is about building an eco-system where the right kind of solutions to help restore the planet can get investment. There was a real vibe around that and how supportive they were of each other.”

This year’s Earthshot Prize evening opened with a soliloquy from famed natural history broadcaster Sir David Attenborough before Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, alongside fellow host Emmy award-winning actor and producer Sterling K. Brown welcomed delegates to the gateway to South East Asia.

Related: Kate Middleton Won't Join Prince William in Singapore So She Can Support Prince George During a Busy Time

Blanchett announced the winners of the first prize, Protect and Restore Nature, which went to Acción Andina. Based in the Andes Mountains, in South America, it is a grassroots, community-based initiative working across the continent to protect native high Andean forest ecosystems in the region. Blanchett said that the $1.2 million prize money would help “elevate their project." Florent Kaiser CEO of Global Forest Generation from Accion Andes said from the stage, “It is much more than a project in the Andes. It is a symbol of hope. Thank you everybody here and the amazing Earthshot community,”.

Clean Our Air Earthshot Prize was won by GRST, which has a solution to help make the electric cars of the future cleaner, with their innovative way of building and recycling the vital lithium-ion batteries. Justin Hang, from the company, said, “I will use this prize to engage everyone in this planet to scale the using of a truly sustainable lithium-ion battery in their everyday life.”

To Build a Waste Free World was presented by actress Lana Condor to S4S Technologies, from  India. They make solar-powered dryers and processing equipment to combat food waste, enabling small-hold farmers to preserve crops and turn produce that might otherwise go to waste into valuable products.

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The Earthshot Prize titled Fix Our Climate was Boomitra. It works in South America, Asia, and Africa to remove emissions and boosting farmer profits by incentivizing land restoration through a verified carbon-credit marketplace. The company's Aadith Moorthy told the show, “In order to truly move the needle on climate change . . with Earthshot Prize and the support, not just the financial but the acceleration support, we aim to do just that so we can enable all the famers worldwide and especially throughout the global south to be key part of the solution to keeping this planet pristine.”

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