Earthshot Prize 2025: Why the world will be looking to Brazil in November

It was Sunday night, and as someone who doesn't expect anything new from a news program, I was surprised by a story that kept me hooked from start to finish.

Fantástico announced that the 2025 Earthshot Prize will be held in November, here in Brazil, at the Museum of Tomorrow, in Rio de Janeiro. I confess: I had never heard of this award. But all I had to do was hear Prince William praise the creativity of Brazilians and speak so enthusiastically about the power of sustainable innovation, and something inside me was awakened.

Image - Ocean Impact Organization

That's when I started to dig deeper to learn more.

I discovered that the Earthshot Prize was created by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. He launched the Earthshot Prize in 2020 with the goal of rewarding and promoting innovative solutions to the world's biggest environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

An international prize, with proposals that go far beyond technology, it's about reimagining the world. And for the first time, this award is coming to Latin America. It's coming to Brazil.

Curious, I went looking to find out who the winners of the first edition were, back in 2021. And what I found was, to say the least, inspiring: projects that convert plastic into building blocks, technologies that clean oceans, and ideas that transform waste into viable solutions for the daily lives of entire communities. Small revolutions, created with purpose.

For the Earthshot Prize 2025, the five categories competing for the award are:

• Protecting and restoring nature

• Cleaning our air

• Reviving our oceans

• Building a zero-waste world

• Fixing our climate

Imagem - World Economic Forum

Each winner receives £1 million to scale their solution, plus a year of support through the Earthshot Fellowship program.

But what caught my attention most was the tone of the award. It’s not about glamour or status. It’s about urgency. About the now. About how we can use what we already have, nature, science, ancestry and creativity, to build new possible futures.

And seeing Brazil as the stage for this next edition is not just a geographical detail. It’s a message. An acknowledgement of the power we have in innovation, biodiversity, talent and territory.

To see global leaders turning their eyes to our country, recognizing our solutions and valuing our initiatives... it’s as if the world were saying, for the first time in a long time: “we want to hear what you have to say”.

There are still a few months left until November. But my head is already buzzing with reflections, references, ideas.

Because if this award taught me something right away: that great transformations begin like this, with a careful look, a spark of curiosity and the courage to imagine differently.

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What about you? Have you heard of Earthshot?

If you want to know more, follow the official link to the page to explore all the news, winning projects and follow this incredible journey until November.

EarthshotPrize.org