20 Jul 2022
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As the world looks to Brazil for climate action, The Earthshot Prize today unveiled a series of landmark announcements at its Impact Assembly.
The event marked a historic convening of Heads of State, local government representatives, world leaders, philanthropists, major investors, leading businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators, young people and Indigenous Peoples alongside Founder and President of The Earthshot Prize, Prince William to discuss progress and opportunities for action.
The announcements highlighted the unstoppable momentum of The Earthshot Prize with new partnerships from its network successfully deploying global solutions at scale.
Founded in the UK, Matter, are innovators in water filtration who have developed revolutionary technology that dramatically reduces microfibres entering the eco system during the garment washing process. This is the biggest cause of microplastics, both in homes and in the textile industry.
Matter announced a groundbreaking partnership today with Inter IKEA. Inter IKEA, one of the world’s largest textile producers, making curtains, bedding and our homes around us, will be working closely with Matter to explore how to bring their innovative and impactful technology to market at scale.
Tenure Facility, a global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to securing land and forests rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples, and local communities, surpassed USD 100 million in finance to these communities over a period of seven years.
Tenure Facility announced it is now set to double this funding to USD 200 million within the next two years. This milestone shows that Indigenous and community organisations are ready to absorb and manage funding at scale.
Bonds for Ocean Conservation, pioneered by the Debt for Nature Coalition – a group of six global environmental organisations – announced a major step forward today with the launch of a new Private Credit Enhancement Facility, built by impact-credit fund Enosis Capital.
Backed by a USD 100 million commitment from ZOMA Lab, the facility will unlock over USD 1 billion in new guarantees by 2030, using private capital to make it safer for investors to participate in debt-for-nature deals. This milestone will help governments to lower borrowing costs and redirect billions toward protecting nature, strengthening resilience, and supporting communities across the Global South.
Adam Root, Founder and CEO of Matter
Nonette Royo, Executive Director of Tenure Facility.
Susana Cardenas, Bonds for Ocean Conservation
2024 Winner ATS Energy, which transforms industrial waste heat into electricity with no moving parts, achieved a new milestone in clean power innovation when it announced the world’s first commercial agreement for deployment of a Solid-State Generator (SSG) that converts industrial waste heat into clean, reliable electricity. This marks a major advance in heat-to-electricity technology and signals a new solid-state era in power generation.
2023 Finalist Belterra, which works with smallholder farmers in Brazil to restore forests, partnered with 2023 Finalist Sea Forest, which produces SeaFeed, revolutionary livestock-feed supplement, proven to reduce enteric methane emissions by up to 80%, the feed will be offered to farmers in Belterra’s network.
There are likely to be wider economic benefits of this partnership as it has the potential to generate carbon credits which can increase the revenues to be shared with small farmers. The partnership is working to build wider economic benefits through improved productivity and the potential to generate carbon credits which can increase the revenues to be shared with small farmers.
2023 Winner Boomitra, which removes emissions and boosts farmer profits through soil restoration, announced that one of The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance Members, Deloitte, has purchased soil carbon credits from its Northern Mexico Grassland Restoration Project.
The award-winning initiative enables ranchers to adopt regenerative grazing practices that restore degraded ecosystem and remove carbon at scale. Boomitra’s equitable model delivers 75% of all credit revenue to participating ranchers and the local community.
UK-based 2024 Finalist NatureMetrics, which turns nature to data, announced a key milestone by reaching 10% of the world with its eDNA sampling network. It has built the planet’s largest proprietary eDNA species database to power predictive AI models and redefined how we understand and protect biodiversity.
As part of its expansion, it has also opened new laboratories in Brazil to allow it to bring its biodiversity monitoring to the country for the first time.
2024 Winner, ATS, offers a simple, safe and reliable solution to transform industrial waste heat into electricity.
2023 Winner, Boomitra, are removing emissions and boosting farmer profits by incentivising soil restoration and verified carbon-credits.
2023 Finalist, Belterra, works with smallholder farmers in Brazil to restore forests through regenerative agricultural practices.
2024 Finalist, NatureMetrics, simplifies the collection of eDNA to help organisations protect and maintain biodiverse ecosystems.
The Impact Assembly was part of The Earthshot Prize Summit, a programme featuring high-level events and bilateral meetings from 3-5 November, culminating in the 2025 Awards Night at The Museum of Tomorrow, the day before the COP30 Heads of State Summit in Belém.
Hosted by globally recognised broadcaster and CNN’s Chief International Anchor, Christiane Amanpour, the Impact Assembly featured talks and speeches from Prince William, Rt Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern, Trustee at The Earthshot Prize, Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on behalf of The Earthshot Prize 2025 Finalist, Tropical Forest Forever Facility, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados and 2025 Finalist, Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, and Txai Suruí, a leading voice for Brazil’s Indigenous communities, among other high-profile dignitaries and world leaders.
In addition, The Earthshot Prize announced a strategic partnership with 500 Global, one of the world’s most active venture capital firms, to accelerate climate innovation in Emerging Markets. This partnership is more relevant than ever before; Emerging Markets face 75% of global climate risk but receive only 15% of the capital to confront climate challenges.
Through the strategic partnership, 500 Global and The Earthshot Prize intend to address this imbalance and accelerate inclusive growth. Alongside its own pipeline, 500 Global will leverage The Earthshot Prize’s portfolio of climate solutions, drawn from five years of Prize nominations – 40% of which are based in the Global South – to create new opportunities to scale innovations. The Earthshot Prize also plans to establish a climate innovation hub in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Rio City Hall and 500 Global. The hub will foster collaboration between companies, entrepreneurs, academics, and investors to spark new climate solutions.
At this halfway point of the Earthshot Decade we’re looking ahead with clear and collective ambition. Today’s announcements, from current and past Finalists and Winners, are evidence that change can and will happen, for everyone’s benefit. That evidence of impact – set against the palpable energy here in Rio de Janeiro – are not only stories that need to be told and heard across the world, but they are also the catalyst that propels us into the second half of this critical decade.
Momentum is truly here. Today we announce world-first milestones and strategic global partnerships, all made possible through The Earthshot Prize ambitious global network. That network is united behind urgent optimism and bold solutions to solve the planet’s biggest problems, and it is powerful.
It is such a proud moment to see climate solutions, which have been recognised and nurtured by The Earthshot Prize, make huge strides towards achieving their goals and ambitions, as they unveil groundbreaking announcements at the Impact Assembly.
That The Earthshot Prize community has played a pivotal role in catalysing these developments is excellent testament to its impact. The Finalists’ progress in exceptional, their potential is vast, and their momentum is unstoppable.
