The Prince of Wales is to join young environmentalists taking part in the inaugural Earthshot Prize climate leaders’ youth programme in Cape Town.
William will start a four-day visit to South Africa by meeting some of the 120 future leaders who will be supported during Earthshot Week in developing skills in leadership, storytelling and networking.
The future king is travelling to South Africa for the Earthshot Prize awards ceremony on Wednesday, and other related events during the week, when five category winners will each receive £1 million to scale up their plans to “repair” the planet.
William will meet members of the youth programme as they discuss their experiences of working on environmental issues on the first official day of the youth programme.
Before his visit to South Africa, he said: “Africa has always held a special place in my heart – as somewhere I found comfort as a teenager, where I proposed to my wife and most recently as the founding inspiration behind the Earthshot Prize.”
He will have a high-level meeting with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, described as a “follow-up” to the leader’s state visit to the UK in 2022.
The two men will sit down for talks and will be joined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy for a meeting with his South African counterpart Ronald Lamola.
William will also give what Kensington Palace has described as a landmark speech on nature, the environment and his support for wildlife rangers on Tuesday at the start of a two-day summit for United for Wildlife Global, his umbrella organisation fighting the illegal trafficking of animals.
Hannah Jones, Earthshot Prize’s chief executive, said Earthshot Week is “dedicated to celebrating environmental innovation, speeding solutions to scale, and inspiring young people to put their time and talent to fixing the planet one solution at a time” and “represents over a year and half of working in the continent with our partners and stakeholders”.