The Earthshot Prize tonight revealed the first-ever five Prize Winners of the most prestigious environment awards in history at a glittering ceremony held at London’s Alexandra Palace. Each of these five Winners will receive £1million prize money.
Indian company Vidyut Mohan-led Takachar was named among the winners of Prince William’s inaugural Earthshot Prize of million pounds ($1.4 million), in London.
The Prize founded by Prince William and British Naturalist David Attenborough aims to inspire innovative solutions to the most pressing environmental challenges to repair the planet over the next decade.
Takachar is among the five winners, each receiving a million pounds ($1.4 million).
Indian company, Vidyut Mohan-led Takachar won the “Clean our Air” prize for the creation of a portable machine which turns agricultural waste into fertiliser so that farmers do not burn the waste and cause air pollution.
Takachar went head to head with another Indian finalist in the category, 14 year old Tamil Nadu schoolgirl Vinisha Umashankar’s solar-powered ironing cart project.
The ceremony capped a 10-month global search with over 750 nominations from around the world. 15 Finalists were chosen through a rigorous selection process.
The five Winners, which span the globe from Costa Rica to India, include transformative technologists, innovators, an entire country, and a pioneering city and were chosen for their ground-breaking solutions to the greatest environmental challenges facing our planet.
Costa Rica emerged as the winner in the “protect and restore nature”
The Winners were connected to the Awards Ceremony by global broadcast, where The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by Sir David Attenborough, Christiana Figueres, Dani Alves and a host of stars and performers including Ed Sheeran and Yemi Alade.
In a recorded message played at the ceremony, which was broadcast on BBC, Prince Williams warns that the “actions we choose or choose not to take in the next 10 years will determine the fate of the planet for the next thousand”. “A decade doesn’t seem long, but humankind has an outstanding record of being able to solve the unsolvable,” he says.
“The future is ours to determine. And if we set our minds to it, nothing is impossible.”
The moment Earth shot Prize Winners found out they had won!
😱 The moment our first #EarthshotPrize Winners found out they had won! 🏆#EarthshotLondon2021 🌎 pic.twitter.com/uKdiy9JNP0
— #EarthshotLondon2021 Awards (@EarthshotPrize) October 18, 2021
Our Finalists all give us hope which, we are told, springs eternal. But we don’t have eternity. We need to do this now. And over the next ten years, if we all put our minds to it, I believe we can.”
Earth shot Prize Council Member Sir David Attenborough
"Our Finalists all give us hope which, we are told, springs eternal. But we don’t have eternity. We need to do this now. And over the next ten years, if we all put our minds to it, I believe we can."
— #EarthshotLondon2021 Awards (@EarthshotPrize) October 17, 2021
— #EarthshotPrize Council Member Sir David Attenborough pic.twitter.com/kUUnXoD1eg
The Earth shot London 2021 green carpet
The #EarthshotLondon2021 green carpet 💚
— #EarthshotLondon2021 Awards (@EarthshotPrize) October 17, 2021
Rewatch the first-ever awards on @BBCiPlayer and @Discovery on Facebook 🌎#EarthshotPrize pic.twitter.com/HlNibEyJqX
The London awards ceremony concluded by revealing the Earthshot Prize will travel to the U.S. in 2022.
