bitchy | Prince William announces the host city for this year’s Earthshot awards: Rio de Janeiro

Prince William has been in the wind for the past week, as has his wife. I assume that their kids’ school is in the middle of their spring break, because this is usually the time of year when the Wales family goes missing for a month or longer. But William wanted to get some “work” done in the middle of his vacation, so on Thursday, he made a big Earthshot announcement. I actually thought this announcement already happened last year, but whatever. The location of this year’s Earthshot Prize Awards is Rio de Janeiro.

The Prince of Wales has announced that the next Earthshot prize awards will be held in Rio de Janeiro, hailing “the remarkable power of human ingenuity” to address “our ­planet’s most pressing challenges”. A royal source had already indicated that the prince was also keen to “play a role” in Cop30, the United Nations ­climate change conference, in the city of Belem in northeastern Brazil in ­November.

At last year’s awards ceremony in Cape Town, the source said: “The ­climate Cop will take place in Brazil and it’s set to be hugely consequential. The Prince of Wales is looking forward to playing a role there.”

William has spoken about taking his environmental prize to every corner of the planet, mentioning China, India and South America as places he has yet to visit in connection with the awards. Since its inception in 2020, the annual Earthshot ceremony has been held in London, Boston, Singapore and Cape Town.

Announcing the location for this year’s awards, William appeared in a video with the footballer David Beckham, the actresses Cate Blanchett and Hannah Waddingham, the model ­Heidi Klum and the Brazilian footballer Marcos Evangelista de Morais, known as Cafu. The prince said: “I think Brazil really epitomises where the prize needs to land; the culture of Brazil, the fact that we’ve got Cop30 there. We need urgent optimism now more than ever and I think Brazil ­epitomises that, and I can’t believe that we’re at the halfway point of ten years.”

William said in a statement that 2025 marked “the midway point of the Earthshot decade, and each year we’ve witnessed the remarkable power of human ingenuity in addressing our planet’s most pressing challenges…As we bring the Earthshot prize to Brazil, a nation rich in ­biodiversity and environmental innovation, we are seeing fresh ­momentum for new ideas to create healthier and safer ways to live our lives. It is an honour to profile the people making our world a better place for us and for our children.”

A date has yet to be announced but the Earthshot ceremony is expected to be held around the same time as Cop30.

COP30 is being held in November, the 10th through the 21st. Given Earthshot’s usual timeline, I would assume that the Earthshot event will be staged after COP30 and not before. I also imagine that we’ll be getting some truly unfortunate photo-ops of the Hunchback of Pegger Dame with various world leaders at COP. Anyway… it will be interesting to see how Brazilians treat all of this. I wonder if Gisele Bundchen will sign on to do something – Gisele actually has years of environmental work in Brazil under her belt.

This video is… awkward. Prince William didn’t even stick around to actually talk to the celebrities who agreed to make quick appearances. After all, he’s on vacation!!

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.