Prince William’s Trying to Cement His Legacy as King Now With The Earthshot Prize Awards, Commentator Says
He may not be king just yet, but Prince William’s already working on building a legacy for himself. How exactly? Through the Earthhot Prize Awards in his “era as Prince of Wales,” according to a royal commentator.
Prince William started the Earthshot Prize Awards in 2020
In 2020, the then Duke of Cambridge, William, now 41, launched the Earthshot Prize Awards. Per the charity’s official website, the Earthshot Prize centers around finding “extraordinary solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges.”
Each year the charity awards grants worth more than $1 million to help entrepreneurs scale up their products and services to aid the planet. The goal is to have an expanding natural world by 2030.
Since launching the Earthshot Prize, William’s handed out grants at two different award ceremonies, usually with his wife, Kate Middleton, walking a green carpet. The awards began in London, England, before moving to Boston, Mass., in 2022, with Singapore to play host on Nov. 7, 2023.
The Earthshot Prize Awards are set to be William’s legacy he’ll have ‘in the bag’ upon becoming king
Discussing how important the Earthshot Prize Awards are to Wiliam’s future on the Sept. 6 episode of The Royal Report podcast, commentator Jack Royston explained that the father of three has a lot riding on the initiative.
Calling the present a “key era” for William, the podcast host told listeners: “He has his Earthshot Prize, which he will hope will be his legacy, his kind of equivalent of The Prince’s Trust,” his father King Charles III’s own charity.
“He will really want to make sure that this project counts for him,” Royston continued, calling the Earthshot Prize Awards a “big date” in William’s calendar. The reason being “that when he becomes king — however many years time that proves to be — he’s going to want to enter the job with a legacy already in the bag.”
“This is really, I think, a make-or-break project for him in that respect,” Royston added.
King Charles can ‘look back’ on his legacy as William builds his own through Earthshot
William’s father, who has spent one year on the throne as of Sept. 8, 2023, doesn’t have to worry as much about his legacy, according to Royston. Why? Because the 74-year-old’s already crafted it with The Prince’s Trust.
“There is no real expectation of Britain that the reigning monarch comes into power and, kind of, achieves a huge amount in their first year. It’s not at all like being president,” he said. “For royals, the era where you define your legacy comes really before you’re crowned.”
“So for Charles, he can look back on his whole era as Prince of Wales,” Royston said. “When he campaigned on the environment when it wasn’t popular, when he set up one of his most successful charities, The Prince’s Trust … and he’ll look back on that as his legacy.”
“If things go slowly for the first few years at the palace,” the commentator added, “I don’t think he’ll have a huge problem with that.”
