Finalists of the Earthshot Environmental Prize 2022 declared 

In today’s unprecedented times, climate change and environmental crisis are two of the most important global concerns. In fact, it has become imperative that proactive measures be taken in order to tackle such problems. Now, the good news is, even though we are far from making a significant impact, there are individuals and groups around the world, doing their best to conserve the Earth.  

Taking this into account, every year, Prince William, the British heir to the throne, honours stakeholders who contribute directly to combat climate change and environmental issues through the Earthshot Environmental Prize. Established in 2020, this prize is conferred to those who come up with innovative ideas to safeguard the environment at large. It was named based on former US President John F. Kennedy’s ambitious “Moonshot” Project, that he had set up to accomplish the 1969 lunar mission.  

Recently, the fifteen finalists for the Earthshot Environmental Prize 2022 were announced by Prince William, out of which, five winners will be chosen next month at Boston. They will each receive a prize money worth 1 million euros in order to develop their projects. The five categories of the prize include: protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world, and fix our climate. The Earthshot Environmental Prize intends to offer as much as 50 million euros over the next decade to the ones developing solutions to major environmental challenges. Interestingly, the prize received more than 1000 nominations this year.  

Some of the other notable mentions from this year are: The Great Bubble Barrier from Netherlands, which is nothing but a bubble pump designed to catch plastics before they reach the ocean. As part of this design, air is pumped through a perforated tube to form a bubble curtain which helps bringing plastic up to the surface of water and pass it on to waste collection system.  

A county Durham-based company called Low Carbon Materials (LCM) has also formulated a unique way to convert unrecyclable plastic waste into functioning concrete blocks, without any sort of carbon emissions; thus, offering the construction industry a decarbonising solution.  

For the first time too, a UK-based start-up named Notpla has also made it to the finals by making packaging out of seaweeds and plants as a substitute to single-use plastic. In fact, it has also made more than a million biodegradable food boxes for an online food ordering site called Just Eat.  

Some of the other finalists are, the City of Amsterdam Circular economy Group that aims to recycle everything (and not waste anything) in the Dutch capitals by 2050. Kenya’s Mikuru Clean Stoves has also made it to the list. It provides eco stoves in order to lower the domestic air pollution (causing chronic respiratory diseases) while also offering a safer way to cook. These cleaner and greener burning stoves use processed biomass made from charcoal, wood and sugar cane and leads to 90 percent less pollution that conventional stoves.  

Interestingly, an Indian company that makes leather out of floral waste and calls the system Fleather have also been shortlisted, apart from Malaysia’s Hutan that develops wildlife corridors for orangutans.  

Oman-based firm called 44.01 who has found an innovative way to get rid of carbon by simply mineralising it in rocks and Australia’s Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef group that continue to preserve the land and sea by blending ancient knowledge with digital technologies have also qualified for the Earthshot finals.