Prince William Hits the Green Carpet in Singapore for His Earthshot Prize Awards

The Prince of Wales is in Singapore without his wife Kate Middleton as he seeks answers to the planet's environmental problems

Prince William's third Earthshot Prize awards are here!

Tuesday's glam night in Singapore saw stars like actress Cate Blanchett, Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham and Emmy award-winning actor and producer Sterling K. Brown herald the next wave of environmentalists and businesses who have some of the answers to the planet's most pressing problems.

The Prince of Wales, 41, was joined on the green carpet by Earthshot Prize Council Member Blanchett before he then met Waddingham and Brown, who are joint hosts of the ceremony at the Mediacorp Theatre in Singapore. William then walked into the auditorium, accompanied by Waddingham (who wore a red poppy emblem on her dress to mark remembrance for war veterans.)

It is the third iteration of the prize, which held its inaugural ceremony in London in 2021 and headed to Boston last year for the second prize event. For the first time, Prince William's wife, Kate Middleton, wasn't with him — she opted to stay at home in the U.K. to help their son Prince George, 10, prepare for his school exams.

The awards ceremony was all about the ideas of the future following an 11-month search to find the most innovative solutions to the greatest environmental challenges facing the planet. The selection process sifted through a record of 1,100 nominations — a 20% increase.

A prize of $1.2 million is given each year to winners in five categories: Clean Our Air; Protect and Restore Nature; Revive Our Oceans; Build a Waste Free World and Fix Our Climate.

Related: Oar-some! Prince William Wins Dragon Boat Race Ahead of Earthshot Prize Event in Singapore 

Earthshot Prize Council Member Blanchett presented one of the prizes, while Lana Condor and Earthshot advocate Robert Irwin also took turns introducing the winners.

The Earthshot for Protect and Restore Nature 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 for their invaluable benefits to nature and millions of people in the region.

The Clean Our Air Earthshot Prize was won by GRST, from Hong Kong, China. GRST 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.

The Revive Our Oceans prize was given to WildAid Marine Program. Based in the U.S. it is a global non-profit organization working everywhere from the Caribbean to Central America, and from Kenya to Indonesia and the Philippines. It works to scale marine enforcement to end illegal fishing and strengthen ocean conservation.

The Earthshot Prize to Build A Waste-Free World was won by S4S Technologies, 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.

And 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.

Related: Prince William Pens Foreword for New Book Inspiring Next Generation of Climate Changemakers (Exclusive)

For William, while he recognizes there are challenges, some of which may have “left people feeling defeated,” there is hope. He told the awards ceremony, “The light of optimism is burning bright in our Earthshot finalists. From Boomitra, S4S, and Acción Andina, to GRST and Wildaid Marine, our winners and all our finalists remind us that no matter where you are on our planet the spirit of ingenuity, and the ability to inspire change, surrounds us all.”

He thanked Singapore for hosting the ceremony and the events around it, adding it was a “great city leveraging technology and innovation to help repair and regenerate our planet.”

He has set aside ten years of Earthshot Prizes to make a difference. “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.”

And the prince added, “We owe it to the generations that will follow us to work together both for their future, and for the future of our planet. It is my belief that we will find the courage to do so. We will find the courage because we will hold onto the most powerful motivators of all: optimism and hope.”

The event featured musical performances by One Republic, Bastille and Bebe Rexha. The ceremony will be broadcast on PBS in the U.S. on Sunday, Nov. 12, with the show produced by Silverback, which makes the famous wildlife programs hosted by Sir David Attenborough.

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

Earlier in the day, during what is being called an inaugural "Earthshot Week" that convenes businesses and investors with winners and finalists to help accelerate their solutions and ideas, the prince visited with the 15 finalists. There he told reporters that he was “really proud of the whole team,” especially as  Earthshot had developed “from a seed of an idea to where we are three years later.”

“The whole point is to provide impact and to make change," he said. Referring to the finalists, who had gathered in Singapore, he added, "The guys and girls you’ve met are fantastic. They’re the ones at the forefront and over the next ten years we’ve got to give them support and all the help we can do so their impact is magnified greater than what they’re already doing.”

On Monday, William attended the first United for Wildlife Global Summit, which brought together global leaders from conservation, law enforcement, government and the private sector to exchange the latest ideas and learnings in combatting the illegal wildlife trade.

Before they left Britain, Earthshot Prize CEO, Hannah Jones, said one reason Singapore had been chosen for the location because it "is at the heart of climate action movement in Southeast Asia. The country exemplifies how to leverage technology, capital and human ingenuity to work collaboratively to solve the toughest environmental challenges."

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