Five climate and environmental innovators honored by Prince William at The Earthshot Prize Awards

Five climate and environmental innovators were awarded prizes at this year’s The Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony. 

At a star-studded ceremony in Boston on Friday, each climate start-up was honored with $1.2 million in prize money to boost its work. 

Among the innovators, is a woman in Kenya who has created cleaner burning stoves, a startup in Britain making biodegradable plastic out of seaweed, and the group 44.01 in Oman, which is taking planet-warming carbon emissions and turning them to stone. 

“Earthshot’s support will enable us to scale our solution around the world and ultimately help us eliminate more CO2 to help us fix our climate,” Talal Hasan, 44.01’s founder, told CBS News. 

This is the second year that the award was given. Prince William, who created the award, was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” pledge to get Americans on the moon.  

Earthshot Award Board Chair Christiana Figueres said having the Prince of Wales support has made a difference in moving forward with climate action initiatives. 

“They bring an incredible platform and an incredible reach. The fact that he has chosen to stand on the side of can do, without a guarantee, but just to inspire everyone, all of us, to live up to our absolute best, is fantastic,” Figueres said.