Prince William has become a regular face in the war against climate change. So, it wasn’t a surprise to see him at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, shaking hands with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, both men beaming with smiles.
During his time in the Empire State, Prince William also had some interesting comments to make about the threat of climate change and the ever-renewing efforts to make our planet healthy again.
The words of a United Nations spokesperson captured the essence of the meeting. Both men discussed “efforts required to accelerate the fight against climate change and protect the environment.”
The spokesperson also revealed that both men brainstormed on ways to “enhance implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as financing for development.”
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are the 17-point agenda drawn up in 2015 to achieve objectives that will end hunger, poverty, and achieve universal access to quality education. Other items on the list include the promotion of gender equality, economic growth among member nations, and of course, “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”
Prince William’s mission to New York after his earlier visit in 2014 is strictly on climate change business. He is also in the city to unveil this year’s winners of the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, a yearly event he created that aims to encourage anti-climate change innovation.
The summit is a yearly gathering of anti-climate change stakeholders from across the globe that the prince started in 2020. Every year, the summit’s panelists fish out 5 major contributions to the war against climate change.
Winners will receive a sum of £1 million to keep their environment-friendly innovations alive. This year’s edition will take place in Singapore, which is reputed to be one of the world’s cleanest cities.
The Prince hopes that 50 anti-climate change ideas or more will have been funded in the space of 10 years. Prince William is continuing the work that his grandfather Prince Philip and his father King Charles have done in restoring the planet.
In his remarks after landing in New York, the prince of Wales gave another rallying cry, encouraging more concerted efforts in the war against climate change. “Eighty years ago, the world came together in this great city to find a new way, through the U.N., to solve our shared challenges,” William said after arriving in New York. “I know our generation can take the bold action we need to make changes towards a healthy and sustainable world,” he said.
Speaking later on, during the Earthshot Prize Award, Prince William warned against the highly pessimistic commentaries that he says have crept into lots of climate change discussions. While acknowledging the place of realism, the prince believes that there should be equal room for hope.
“I think if we remark on how pessimistic and doom and gloom everything is, even though there is a healthy dose of that needed… it doesn’t provoke the reaction from us humans that we would like,” the British prince noted. He believes that the Earthshot Prize will provide that hope that the world so desperately needs.
