23 Dec 2020
The spotlight may have dimmed on an unforgettable week in Rio de Janeiro for The Earthshot Prize, but its impact in Brazil is just beginning.
In recent months, global and local Earthshot Prize teams – the world’s most impactful and prestigious environmental award established in 2020 by His Royal Highness Prince William – have united to build a lasting legacy for Brazil and the planet, driving impact across four key pillars: Youth, Finance, Innovation, and Storytelling.
Cementing Brazil’s role in global climate leadership and driving innovation and investment in climate solutions, The Earthshot Brazil Steering Committee – made up of leaders from business, science, civil society, philanthropy, and investment – will steer the long-term climate strategy across these four pillars, building on the impact announcements made at the Earthshot Summit.
The Earthshot Prize is partnering with Insper, a leading non-profit institution for education and research in Brazil, to launch the Earthshot Climate Leadership Program – a postgraduate course designed to equip a new generation of climate leaders to drive Brazil’s transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.
Running over one-and-a-half years and featuring an international outlook that connects participants to the global Earthshot community, the programme will begin in the first half of 2026. Insper will offer 40 places per cohort, with six cohorts planned by 2030 – training around 240 emerging leaders to shape Brazil’s climate future.
The Earthshot Prize and 500 Global – one of the world’s most active venture capital firms – have announced a strategic partnership to drive climate innovation and unlock investment across Emerging Markets. 500 Global intends to develop and implement an investment strategy designed to de-risk early-stage investments, unlocking private capital for a pipeline of high-impact climate solutions ready for growth, targeting H1 of 2026.
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 strategy will focus on three key areas where climate impact meets commercial potential: AgTech, Clean Tech, and Nature Tech.
The Earthshot Prize 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. With a year-round programme of accelerators, events, masterclasses, and networking, the hub will boost visibility for emerging ideas and strengthen Rio’s climate innovation ecosystem.
The Earthshot Prize will also join Cubo Itaú – a not-for-profit innovator which, since 2015, has turbo-charged start-ups with high potential to accelerate climate solutions across Brazil and Latin America – at its leading non-profit technology and innovation hub in São Paulo. The Earthshot Prize’s global network combined with Cubo’s Itaú’s regional ecosystem will together foster innovation and scale impact in clean energy, nature restoration, circular economy, and climate resilience, accelerating climate solutions across Brazil and Latin America.
Opportunities for collaboration include: start-up curation and support; acceleration programmes; masterclasses, bootcamps and inclusion in corporate innovation challenges; investment syndicates to attract pooled capital; policy engagement, insights, storytelling and convening.
To spark urgent optimism, The Earthshot Prize has released a new book spotlighting 26 innovative Brazilian climate solutions, including 2025 finalists re.green and the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF).
Created in partnership with the Arapyau Institute and Itaúsa Institute, the book celebrates bold ideas driving sustainable change, from forest finance to anti-deforestation tech. It’s freely available to the public on Arapyau’s website, offering dynamic, accessible storytelling designed to inspire, inform and drive action.
It is here in Brazil, at the heart of the global effort to address the environmental challenges of this decade, that we are launching a range of initiatives that are designed to support climate leadership, solution innovation and ongoing public awareness around the need to act now to mitigate the impact of climate change.
These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to leaving a lasting legacy beyond 2025 – the year that all eyes were on Brazil due to The Earthshot Prize and COP30 being hosted in the country.
The establishment of a Brazil-based committee marks another important step for The Earthshot Prize in driving the development of sustainable solutions across the country.
We know Brazil holds immense green transformational potential, and by bringing together leading business figures and investors, we can connect diverse market expertise towards the same goal: a sustainable future for the planet.
We are proud to join The Earthshot Prize as a member of its Legacy Steering Committee – an initiative that goes beyond the ceremony to ensure that extraordinary ideas translate into lasting, tangible impact. As a company rooted in Brazil and built on a legacy of quality and excellence, we bring our perspective on responsible innovation and sustainable development to the global stage.
Together, we can transform urgent optimism into enduring progress for both people and planet.
