India-based manufacturers of solar-powered dryers, soil carbon marketplace and groups that work to make electric car batteries cleaner and restore Andean forests while deterring illegal fishing have won Singapore’s annual Earthshot Prize contest this year. Prince William announced the winners at Mediacorp Theater in Singapore Tuesday in a ceremony hosted by his Royal Foundation charity and said the 15 finalists proved “hope still remains” amid global climate change challenges.
On Tuesday evening in Singapore, Earthshot Prize Council unveiled the winners of its 2023 Singapore prize at an awards ceremony featuring more than 150 attendees. Accion Andina, GRST, WildAid Marine Program, S4S Technologies and Boomitra were each granted a catalytic PS1 million prize to assist their solutions scale and accelerate growth and impact – they were selected from 15 finalists by the Earthshot Prize Council.
As part of its sustainability theme, all presenters walked a “green carpet” made from recycled materials when entering the theater. Actors Sterling K. Brown and Hannah Waddingham as well as One Republic and Bastille from bands One Republic and Bastille attended along with Singapore ministers for this ceremony.
As soon as he stepped onto the green carpet, Prince Henry of Luxembourg applauded Singapore’s leadership in making it into a liveable city with rapid economic development and high quality of life. Additionally, he applauded those behind this year’s Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize which honours cities that have adopted strategic land use and transport planning policies and programs for creating sustainable urban communities.
Singapore was honored with this inaugural presentation of Asia’s annual innovation prize and it marks their growing role as a leader in global innovation, noted Mr. Lee. It honors late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew for turning Singapore into a distinctive, clean and green garden city while still maintaining social harmony and cultural diversity, said Mr. Lee.
On Jan. 25, Singapore will play host to an award event for one lucky writer to claim the top prize of $10 Million; nine additional prizewinners will each receive $1 Million as announced later this month. The competition is open to writers who write in any of Singapore’s four official languages of Chinese, Malay, Tamil or English and is judged by local and foreign literary experts, academics and journalists with shortlisted works being published later this fall.