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The Earthshot Prize is a passion project for William, one which he has been developing for the past two years. William partnered on the prize with his Royal Foundation, the charitable organization run by William and Kate, which calls the prize its “biggest initiative to date.”

William spoke Thursday about the uniqueness of announcing this initiative during the global coronavirus pandemic.

\"I don’t think we’ve faced anything like this,\" he said. \"Obviously previous generations have gone through the world wars and times that were far tougher than what they are now but we are going through a certain where families are being restricted from seeing each other. Jobs are being lost. It’s difficult for everybody.\"

\"We're in a very, very dangerous and difficult time in the environment\"

Prince William launches the Earthshot Prize - a £50 million fund to support ideas to help repair our planet 🌍https://t.co/zpeaDlD0h9 pic.twitter.com/4wAQBBLEqA

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 8, 2020

\"But the spirit of togetherness and the ability to fight back is I think you know one of humans’ kind of biggest elements and I do think it’s brought us closer together. I think we’re all in a shared, similar situation,\" William added. \"If we can take that forward into the environment and replicate that – you know we found over £190 billion worth to fix and help the recovery through Covid. We can do the same for the environment. It really isn’t that difficult.\"

William, who has long championed environmental efforts, is the subject of a documentary released this week highlighting his conservation and environmental work.

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A post shared by Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@kensingtonroyal) on Sep 26, 2020 at 2:30pm PDT

In announcing details of the Earthshot Prize, William, the father of Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 2, spoke about how he wants to make the world a better place for future generations.

\"You kind of look at yourself and go – am I doing enough on this? Are we really in the stage of life where I can’t be hugely optimistic and pleased that my children are getting so into nature because you kind of work and dread that they’re soon going to realize that we’re in a very, very dangerous and difficult time for the environment and that as a parent you feel like you’re letting them down immediately,\" he said. \"I think every parent, everyone wants to do their best for their children and I think we have to have a decade of change, a decade of repairing the planet so that we can hand it on to the next generation and future generations and sustain the prosperity for their lives too.\"

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