The Earthshot Prize today announced Jesper Brodin as its new Chair of the Board. The former IKEA CEO succeeds Christiana Figueres in leading the world’s most prestigious and impactful environmental prize.
Founded by HRH Prince William, The Earthshot Prize exists to inspire a decade of urgent environmental action. Jesper Brodin transformed IKEA and showed that what is good for the planet is also good for business. A global leader on sustainability, Brodin joins at the midway point of The Earthshot Prize’s 10-year mission to scale bold solutions to repair our planet
As the inaugural Chair of the Board, Figueres has shaped The Earthshot Prize’s ambition and impact over the past five years. Her inspirational leadership has been pivotal in cementing the Prize as the world’s most impactful environmental award.
Christiana Figueres continues her association with The Earthshot Prize, joining the esteemed Prize Council, which each year selects five exceptional winners from 15 Finalists.
Under Figueres’ stewardship, The Earthshot Prize has identified more than 5,600 emerging environmental innovations from 156 countries, recognised and supported 75 Finalists and awarded £25 million to Prize Winners to help scale their solutions. Earthshot Finalists have collectively secured more than US$500m in additional investment.
This has led to more than 1 million square kilometres of land and oceans being protected and restored – an area nearly twice the size of France; stopped 250,000 tonnes of waste reaching landfill – the same as 22,000 school buses and captured 4.8 million tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of taking 1.2 million cars off the road for an entire year.
Since its inception in 2020, The Earthshot Prize Awards Night has taken place in Rio De Janeiro, Cape Town, Singapore, Boston and London. In November, Mumbai becomes the sixth host city for the celebration of environmental leaders. The Awards Night will culminate in five Earthshot pioneers each winning £1 million and act as a launchpad for action.
I am deeply grateful to Christiana for her outstanding leadership, unrivalled expertise and unrelenting optimism in inspiring action. The Earthshot Prize embodies these values, and Christiana has played a pivotal role in shaping the Prize and championing the solutions of our Finalists.
I am delighted to welcome Jesper as our new Chair. Jesper has shown how business can drive prosperity for our planet, which will be invaluable to our Earthshot community. I look forward to working closely with Jesper to accelerate the bold solutions that will repair our planet.
It has been an honour to serve as the Chair of The Earthshot Prize during its first five years, during which we have taken the Prize from an incipient idea to an inspiring global platform for solutions that repair and regenerate our planet. By inviting, supporting and celebrating human ingenuity, The Earthshot Prize is proving our extraordinary power to transform the world.
As we reach the midway point in the decade, I am delighted to hand the baton over to Jesper Brodin, whose leadership, clarity of purpose, and deep commitment to sustainable transformation make him a wonderful steward for the next chapter of The Earthshot Prize. Under his guidance The Earthshot Prize will continue to accelerate the solutions our world so urgently needs.
We are at a pivotal time when it comes to climate action and it is a privilege and an honor to join The Earthshot Prize, which is unique in its position to connect environmental leaders, innovators, governments and business to create impact at scale.
While many of the solutions are out there – I can’t wait to work with the Earthshot community to see how we together can accelerate implementation with speed. The clock is ticking, and we need action now, to be able to deliver by 2030.
Jesper Brodin’s three-year term as Chair of The Earthshot Prize Board begins on 1 March 2026.
