More than two years after becoming heir and inheriting the Prince of Wales title from his father, he admitted that he found his unique position a double-edged sword.
“It’s a tricky one,” he said. “Do I like more responsibility? No. Do I like the freedom that I can build something like Earthshot? Then yes.
“And that’s the future for me. It’s very important with my role and my platform, that I’m doing something for good. That I’m helping people’s lives and I’m doing something that is genuinely meaningful.
“The Earthshot Prize is a culmination, if you like, of all that put together.
“But it takes a lot of work, and there’s a lot of unseen stuff that goes on, a lot of meetings, a lot of people coming in, a lot of chatting and phone calls, letters, all trying to sort of make Earthshot get to being the best possible entity it can be.”
The Prince said he would like such projects to be “more of a team sport”, revealing that he gets frustrated when businesses, or even the Government, are slow to react when he asks for support.
‘I get a bit frustrated’
He said Earthshot had created a means for businesses to step in and simply “poach” the ideas they wanted to adopt.
“When you approach them and say, ‘Listen, we’re building this incredible thing, please come on board’, some people are extremely fast and keen to do it,” he said.
“Others take a little bit longer and it’s those people who take a little bit longer, I’m like, ‘Guys, we just don’t have the time’.
“So, yes, I get a bit frustrated that it takes a long time to convince people that this is worthy of their attention.
“But I guess that’s the nature of a global environment prize… you start from scratch and it’s going to take a bit of time.”