Prince William who is attending the COP30 climate summit due to start early next week in Brazil. Photo: Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP
Prince William says he tells his children that their future is "going to be as bright as futures gone by" thanks to scientists working to repair the world's climate.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, William - who has travelled to Brazil ahead of the COP30 climate summit to unveil the finalists of his prestigious Earthshot Prize - said young people needed to see climate "solutions" to give them hope for the future.
"Climate anxiety is a real thing. I hear about it wherever I go now, lots of (the) younger generation are saying, 'Well what kind of a planet are we going to inherit?'" the prince said on Wednesday, at an event in Rio de Janeiro. "The younger generations need to be heard more."
William said he was glad that he can tell his children - Prince George, 12; Princess Charlotte, 10; and Prince Louis, 7 - that climate progress was being made, thanks in part to some of the work championed by the Earthshot Prize.
"For my children particularly, knowing that the planet is going to be in a healthier, better state because of the brilliant people in this room, is something that I love to tell them when they go to bed: 'It's going to be great. Your future is going to be as bright as futures gone by,'" he said.
The Earthshot Prize gives a £1 million (NZ$2.3 million) grant to five winners to help fund their environmental works. This year's finalists include a company that has developed a filter for microplastics to one that built an upcycled skyscraper. The winner will be announced later on Wednesday (US time).
William stressed the Earthshot Prize, which was launched five years ago, is not merely "philanthropic," but aimed to help create "commercial products that are going to make life better".
While in Brazil, the prince is also set to give a speech at COP30, which begins on Monday in the northern city of Belém, in the Amazon region.
The timing of the conference means the next-in-line to the British throne is isolated from the fallout from the decision of his father, King Charles III, to strip Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his title of prince over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Asked by Amanpour about the recent "change" in his own family, William did not answer directly.
Instead, he praised the Earthshot Prize as a positive example of "change," saying he wants to surround himself "with people who want to make change and do good in the world".
-CNN
