Meet the 5 winners of the 2024 Earthshot Prize

Wearing biodegradable, plastic-free trainers, Prince William walked the 'green carpet' in Cape Town at a ceremony to award the winners of the Earthshot Prize 2024.

The prize, now in its fourth year, seeks to recognize and scale innovative solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Winners are awarded in five categories: Build a Waste-Free World; Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Ocean; Fix our Climate.

It came as scientists at the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said 2024 was "virtually certain" to overtake 2023 as the hottest year on record.

Environmental risks make up five of the biggest risks facing the planet over the coming decade, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report 2024.

Urgent action is needed if we're to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping the rise in global surface temperature below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and cut emissions in half by 2030. “We want to make this the decade in which we transform the world for good, one solution at a time, from the ground up,” Prince William said on stage in a giant reusable dome erected for the ceremony.

The Earthshot Prize announcement came days before leaders gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, where UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell urged: "We mustn’t let 1.5 slip out of reach. And even as temperatures rise, the implementation of our agreements must claw them back."

Here are this year’s five Earthshot winners in each category.

WINNER: Keep IT Cool (KIC)

KIC, led by Founder and Managing Director Francis Nderitu, is also a Top Innovator on the Forum's UpLink platform, which pairs social entrepreneurs with investors through a series of challenges designed to address the world's biggest challenges. KIC was one of the winners of UpLink's Blue Food Challenge in 2021. It cuts down on food waste on the fishing catch from Kenya's Lake Victoria by providing solar-powered cold storage boxes and refrigerated transportation trucks to cover the whole supply chain. Through its online platform Markiti, it allows retailers to order fish and other protein deliveries, providing predictable demand for fisherfolk to normalize cash flow.

WINNER: Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative

Led by Executive Director Vera Voronova, the initiative has taken a scientific approach to saving the critically endangered Saiga Antelope from extinction in one of the world's least protected ecosystems, Kazakhstan’s Golden Steppe. The animal's population has swelled from around 20,000 in 2003 to 2.86 million today. Following its success, Altyn Dala has widened its mission to protect and restore the whole ecosystem of the Golden Steppe.

WINNER: Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO)

Co-founded by Desmond Alugnoa in 2014, GAYO is tackling the growing issue of waste management in Africa, where the open burning of waste increases air pollution. Through a Zero Waste Model, GAYO is creating jobs and building infrastructure to support circular waste management, working with communities and minority groups who work with waste. In 2023, GAYO kept 170 tonnes of waste out of landfills - and it aims to grow from 150 to 500 employees across half of African cities by 2030.

WINNER: High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC)

Only 17% of the world’s land and 8% of its oceans are currently protected. Since 2021, HAC, led by Rita Maria El Zaghloul, former Minister Counsel at Costa Rica’s UN Permanent Mission, has signed up 120 countries to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. It played a pivotal role in securing the 30x30 agreement at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, in 2022. Now HAC is pushing for these commitments to be written into law.

WINNER: Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems (ATS)

Around 60% of the energy used to power industries is lost as waste heat. Led by CEO Kelly Adams, US-based ATS has developed a scalable technology to capture waste heat from industry and turn it into electricity for the hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement and steel production. It has the potential to save gigatonnes of CO2.