The Royal African Society is one of the Nominators for The Earthshot Prize and we are launching our quest for projects to nominate for the 2023 Prizes TODAY.

It is good to see the prominence given to African projects by the Prize Committee.

In the first year, 2021, there were three African projects in the final fifteen, the Pole Pole Foundation, nominated by the Royal African Society, based in the DRC and supporting the preservation of forest habitats and the rare Grauer’s gorillas; Reedi Capsules from Nigeria, offering portable, re-usable solar-charged batteries in poor rural communities; and Sanergy, a sanitation and waste management project producing fertiliser, based in Kenya.

This year, 2022, there were two more African projects in the final fifteen, both from Kenya: Roam, a company producing pollution-free electric motorcycles for use by Boda boda taxi drivers, and  Mukuru Clean Stoves which won the Prize for Clean our Air for its low-cost, practical and efficient stoves that greatly reduce the cost and pollution of cooking.  They are already used by 200,000 people in Kenya and the £1 million prize will enable the company to scale up production, sales and development.

In 2023, it could be you!

Do you have, or do you know of, a scheme to meet the goals of one or more of the Earthshot Prizes?  If so, send it to us by 23 January 2023 and we will consider it for nomination to the Earthshot Prize Committee.

Once it is put forward (by 31 January), it will be considered in detail by the Prize selection committee.  In 2022 they received over 1000 nominations.  The shortlist of 15 projects for the final selection will be published in the autumn and the five prize winners announced before the end of 2023.

The Earthshot Prize was set up in 2020 by the Society’s Royal Patron, the Prince of Wales, and Sir David Attenborough, in order to stimulate practical proposals that will make an immediate difference to the environmental challenges facing the world today.

 

There are five Prizes, one for each of the five Earthshots: simple but ambitious goals which if achieved by 2030 will improve life for all of us, for generations to come:

 

• Protect and restore nature
• Clean our air
• Revive our oceans
• Build a waste-free world, and
• Fix our climate

 

Details of the Prizes, the criteria and the application process, as well as information on the previous winners, are all the Earthshot Prize website.

Africa is on the frontline of climate change, and there is huge potential for action that will shape the future in a more climate, environment and human-friendly way.  For 2023, we would particularly encourage proposals in a number of specific areas, namely:

• For the preservation of natural carbon stores and the repair of forests and wetlands under Protect and Restore Nature
• For ideas to encourage waste-free fashion under a Waste-free World
• For renewable energy generation under Fix our Climate.

But all other ideas are also strictly welcome – though we will prioritise those that come from or are designed to focus particularly on challenges faced by Africa.

If you wish to make a proposal to the Royal African Society for nomination,

please send it by 23 January 2023 to:

 

The Director, Royal African Society, ras@soas.ac.uk, headed ‘The Earthshot Prize:  The Earthshot Prize and Africa

 

Please complete and return the Nomination form, which you can download from our website here, and send any additional supporting documentation you would like us to see as well to strengthen your bid.  The form provides all the core information we need, but extra detail can always help.

 

 

We very much look forward to receiving your bids.