Your chance to enter your environmental project for the prestigious £1 million Earthshot Prize 2024

The Royal African Society is proud to be an official nominator for The Earthshot Prize, which recognises outstanding, practical contributions to environmentalism globally.

The Prize was established in 2020 by the Society’s Royal Patron, HRH the Prince of Wales, and naturalist Sir David Attenborough, around five ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious and universal goals for 2030 that, if achieved, will repair the planet before irreversible damage occurs. The five Prize categories – the “five Earthshots” – are: to Protect and Restore Nature; to Clean our Air; to Revive our Oceans; to Build a Waste-free World; and to Fix our Climate.

Each year the Prize names a winner in each Earthshot category, who will each receive a £1 million grant towards their environmental work. In addition, all fifteen finalists will be admitted into the Earthshot Prize’s fellowship programme, which provides one year of dedicated support and guidance to help recipients elevate and escalate their impact.

Since the Prize began, the Royal African Society has had the privilege of being one of the organisations nominating potential recipients. The role reflects our position as an Africa-focussed organisation, and recognises the continent’s critical exposure to the impact of climate change and environmental degradation.

We seek Africa-based and Africa-oriented solutions to nominate for the 2024 Prize and welcome your proposals to present to the judges.

In 2024, The Earthshot Prize is encouraging submissions in fifteen specific areas of priority:
Protecting and restoring nature

– Protecting areas of high biodiversity such as forests, wetland, peatlands and wildlife corridors
– Restoring damaged ecosystems
– Feeding people while protecting nature Clean our Air
– Engaging citizens in data collection and clean air policies
– Precenting the burning of fields, forests and waste
– Transitioning to clean transportation for all Revive our Oceans
– Protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems
– Replenishing fish populations
– Reducing demand for fishmeal Build a Waste-free world
– Reducing food loss from farm to fork
– Phasing out single-use and non-recycled plastics
– High-value circularity in fashion and electronics Fix our Climate
– Creating an equitable clean energy future
– Addressing non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions
– Decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors

Previous organisations nominated by the Royal African Society have enjoyed success at the Earthshot Prize, with Pole Pole Foundation (a conservation organisation operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and focused on addressing the economic causes of poaching) being selected for the Prize’s 2021 shortlist.
Details of the Prizes, the criteria and the application process, as well as information on the previous winners, are all the Earthshot Prize website.

If you wish to make a proposal to the Royal African Society for nomination, Please complete and return the Nomination form, which you can download from our website here, and send any additional supporting documentation to strengthen your bid as soon as possible to enable us to work with you on the format of the submission. The form provides all the core information we need, but extra detail can always help.

Deadline for the Royal African Society to receive your proposals is 15 November 2023. Please send to: The Director, Royal African Society, ras@soas.ac.uk, headed ‘The Earthshot Prize: The Earthshot Prize and Africa’
We look forward to receiving your proposals.