(Bloomberg) -- A day of high-profile climate events will begin with the selection on Tuesday of the 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize, an annual award from an organization led by Prince William that recognizes emerging solutions to the environmental crisis.
Five winners drawn from the 15 finalists will go on to receive £1 million ($1.3 million) to scale their efforts, following a ceremony set to be held in November in Cape Town, South Africa. Among last year’s winners were lithium-battery recycler GRST and Acción Andina, a program focused on protecting Andean forest ecosystems.
The prize’s five categories include cleaning the air and building a carbon-neutral economy. This marks the fourth year of the Earthshot Prize, and the stakes of averting catastrophe have never been clearer. Wildfires, record-breaking heat waves and other climate change-fueled extreme weather have battered communities around the world. This year is also on track to be the hottest ever recorded, besting the mark set in 2023.
The announcement of the finalists will happen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and alongside dozens of gatherings for Climate Week NYC. Later on Tuesday at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum, President Joe Biden is set to deliver a speech highlighting US progress in confronting climate change and lowering planet-warming emissions. Political and financial leaders are set to hold additional events on Tuesday assessing the global progress of renewable energy, among other topics.
The Earthshot Prize was founded in 2020 by Prince William in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and is backed by organizations including the Breakthrough Energy Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund and Jack Ma Foundation. (Michael Bloomberg is the majority owner Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, as well as the founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies.)
An advisory panel of experts in conservation, technology, finance and other areas reviews nominations each year and recommends finalists. Prince William and other prominent environmental advocates pick the winners. The funding and exposure that come with the award have buoyed past winners. Mukuru Clean Stoves saw sales of its less-polluting cook stoves jump after winning the 2022 prize, as co-founder Charlot Magayi said in an interview last year.
The money from last year’s prize also opened the door to larger-scale partnerships for the WildAid marine program to reduce illegal fishing, said Meaghan Brosnan, the group’s chief executive officer. She said publicity from Earthshot helped the nonprofit secure its largest-ever grant.
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