The Prince of Wales has announced the 2023 finalists of the Earthshot Prize on the second day of his trip to New York.
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00:00 I did. Yes I decided to join the hordes of New Yorkers doing their morning routine as they went around Central Park. But it
00:08 was wonderful waking up in New York on a sunny morning run the rain we had yesterday. And it was beautiful getting some fresh
00:15 air this morning. But it's been wonderful. We've been back. It's been 2014 was the last time I was here in New York. I've been
00:22 trying to come back for a couple of years. But with Covid and my grandmother passing away last year has not meant to able to
00:29 come. So I'm thrilled to be back this time. It was a very sweaty process. Over many years. But I think to start back at the
00:38 very beginning I think it came about from a desire to see more change and to highlight wonderful people doing incredible
00:48 things as we've all seen today across the world. I'm very lucky that I get to meet a lot of people in different circumstances.
00:56 And I kept being shown these amazing things that were happening. But I just felt the impact from them wasn't being
01:04 achieved or the potential wasn't there when it could be. So I was thinking how do how do we elevate. How do we scale this up.
01:12 How do we allow more people to see this. And so a prize came out of sort of thinking. And it took us 18 months to two years
01:22 to design the prize. We went for a number a number of other iterations where we were kind of like do we go this way. Do we
01:29 get to go that way. And eventually we settled on the prize. And my role in the in the design process was trying to convince
01:38 everyone it wouldn't work because what I was afraid of was that if we design the prize and I was there going yeah this is a
01:44 great idea. I didn't sell it for 10 years. It wasn't going to be very good. So it had to be a case of me looking at it going
01:51 now hang on. How can we make this better. Is this something that has got legs. Is it credible. And will it achieve the
01:57 desired outcome. And I think going through the process as we designed it we were thinking where else in in history has
02:05 ever been something like this where we're asking people to come together and tackle some of society's and life's greatest
02:14 challenges. And that's when the moonshots sort of hits us. And we were looking through Jeff case speeches and Jeff case
02:22 moonshots. And it struck us that this was hugely ambitious at the time. I think it took him seven years to conduct his moonshot.
02:29 He had 400000 engineers and scientists working on it. And some of the things that we all take for granted nowadays like X-rays
02:38 cat scanners even solar panels all came out of a moonshot development phase. So that really inspired me. And I thought hang on
02:47 if even we get one of those to come out of 10 years worth of a shot that it's worth it. Well as we've seen today the you know
02:55 the Earthshot winners and the finalists create that inspiration that optimism. And I think we've got to hang on to optimism
03:02 and hope because it is the biggest driver of change. It is the biggest driver of innovation. I think if we remark on how
03:08 pessimistic and doom and gloom everything is even though there is a healthy dose of that needed to make sure we're all being
03:14 kept in reality it's it doesn't provoke the reaction from us humans as we would like. And I think that's been an important part
03:24 of the prize is design and development is that not just to provide the solutions but it's the fact to make people believe there
03:30 is hope. And there are people out there doing incredible things that will have a massive impact on our futures. The scale.
03:36 That's what I've been working on quite heavily is how do how do we scale the things you're seeing today. Because over 10
03:44 years we're going to have a lot of finalists and other solutions. So if you take the optimism and hope as given when we do the
03:52 solutions and when we scale them up how can we have the biggest change. And I think for me that's something I haven't quite
03:59 cracked yet is how do we scale faster. I'm impatient with all this as you all know. And so it's kind of I feel my role. You
04:09 guys provide the products and you guys provide the inspiration and the solution. My role is to get you as big as fast and as
04:16 scalable as possible. I think we've still got some work to do on that. And I'm hoping in Singapore in November we've got an
04:22 earthshot week where we've got a lot of business and backers coming. I think if I can reach more investors and people see this
04:31 isn't a philanthropic thing we're not doing this to be philanthropic. We're doing this because the vast majority of these
04:36 solutions are commercially viable. I think that will help people realize and understand that this has got legs of its own and
04:42 the momentum will will take it forwards. Because I think you know 10 years down the line this is the decade of change we've
04:49 talked about and 10 years down the line when we look back I want to make sure that we've we've got we found the right
04:54 solutions we found the right people but we're also maximizing their impact. And I think you know I'm already starting to
05:01 think about after 10 years what happens. Many people are already asking that question. And I'll need a few brains in this room
05:07 to help me work out what we do next. But it's you know I'm really pleased with the team and how we've achieved the first three
05:15 years. It's gone better than I hoped. But there's still a lot of work to do. So I I'm a big believer in the in a big team. I
05:23 don't think any solutions in the world can ever be achieved by yourself. And one of my roles has always been to build
05:29 coalitions to build relationships build teams. And this is no different. I'm building an enormous team of brilliant people and
05:39 letting them crack on and do the work that needs to be done. So I think that's really important to kind of have the
05:44 dynamism the innovation and the drive that you will have. You've demonstrated in your ways and all we're doing is providing
05:52 you with a leg up to become a household name and to have the visibility to the right people. But as an example I think for
05:59 everyone here one of the things that comes out of this is that. On a collaboration level that wasn't intended but is happening
06:06 is Costa Rica won in 2021. They completely are throwing backs because they take this very seriously and they take pride in
06:14 the environment. They reached out to another finalist called Restore which is effectively a data company that monitors
06:22 carbon sinks amongst other things. And together they're monitoring 5000 reforestation projects in Costa Rica. So it's the
06:30 first public effectively independent public verifier of national policy on forestation. And they'll hold them to account.
06:38 They have the data and they'll drive that forwards. And so these collaborations are happening without us even trying. And
06:43 that's the kind of thing over the next few years we want to see more and more of that going. But again these things can
06:48 happen with the support of the wider society around.