Each choice today shapes a sustainable future, says Earthshot Prize CEO Hannah Jones
It's a reminder that we each have agency and choices we can make every day.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
When the Prince of Wales founded the Earthshot Prize four years ago, he was dismayed at how much eco-anxiety there was among young people. He worried that it would lead to apathy, depression and a feeling of hopelessness. He wanted to create an antidote to that feeling of despair by helping to repair and regenerate our planet.
The Earthshot Prize was born; its focus – helping to fuel an environmental innovation movement that could contribute to the global goal of protecting 30 per cent of nature, oceans and freshwater, as well as reducing carbon emissions by over 40 per cent by 2030.
Many of the solutions needed to achieve those goals have only just been invented or are yet to be dreamt up. That’s where our prize helps. Each year we search the world for solutions that – if scaled up – could be transformative.
With the help of our global expert advisors and our Earthshot Prize council, whose members include Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett, and Nemonte Nenquimo, an indigenous leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, we select 15 finalists and five winners per year.
To help turbocharge their innovations, all our finalists participate in a year-long fellowship programme of mentorship and support with luminaries including global climate champions like US entrepreneur and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Winners receive £1 million each to scale-up their ideas and I’d encourage everyone to look at their work as well as that of the finalists. They come from everywhere and could be anyone. Perhaps seeing their extraordinary work will plant a seed that grows into your own Earthshot moment?
One of our 2022 winners is the London-based start-up, Notpla, who make a seaweed-based alternative to single-use plastic. What inspires someone to say, "Hmm, I wonder if I could remove fossil fuels from plastic packaging and replace it with seaweed?" But now, if you visit Aston Villa (a favourite with the Prince!), you’re going to get your fish and chips or vegan burger in seaweed-based packaging.
Then there’s MiAlgae, one of this year’s British finalists, who found a remarkable way of turning waste water from the Scottish whisky industry into fish food. Each day wild fish are being caught in their thousands to feed farmed fish and provide them with Omega-3. According to estimates, around 440 wild-caught fish are needed to produce just one farmed salmon. In just six months, MiAlgae has made enough nutrient-rich microalgae powder to keep 2.4 million fish in our oceans.
This year’s awards were held in Cape Town – another of this year’s finalists is bringing clean and affordable power to rural African communities. Despite contributing the least to global warming, Africa is among the most vulnerable to its impact. But, the world is bubbling with incredible transformations and it is a continent alive with creativity and innovation, especially from young people.
By spotlighting and supporting these remarkable ideas, we hope to fuel people’s optimism. There will always be resistance from those threatened by the transition away from fossil fuels, but you can’t halt progress, and you can’t halt a movement that is growing daily with more and more people dedicating their time and talent and creativity to solving the world’s problems – and not waiting for permission to do so!
It’s a reminder that we each have agency and choices we can make every day. I previously worked on sustainability in the fashion world – you can go vintage, swap, seek out people using innovative materials… We can choose what we eat, what we wear, how we buy, how we vote, how we travel.
Each choice made today helps tip the balance towards a more sustainable future. It’s not about being perfect – if we expect perfection, people freeze and no one does anything.
Changes, even small, add up and can make a big difference. As the writer Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."
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