The Earthshot Prize Council

Prince William has long been an advocate for protecting our environment. He has led international efforts to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade through United for Wildlife, helped deliver an ivory ban in the UK and continues to support many global initiatives that focus on conservation.

He believes that the next ten years are critical in our fight to protect the planet. That’s why, in 2020, he launched The Earthshot Prize after two years of work with The Royal Foundation, to develop a landmark project supporting the global effort to protect and restore the environment.

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah is an international human rights advocate whose work focuses on education, cross-cultural dialogue, and finding innovative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.

A mother of four, Her Majesty has won international recognition for her efforts to shed light on the global plight of refugees and to promote acceptance between people of all cultures. Through her position on their boards, Queen Rania contributes to the work of the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

She is also UNICEF’s first Eminent Advocate for Children, a member of the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Board of Advisors, and a recipient of several international awards for her humanitarian work.

Twice named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and awarded “Outstanding Chef” and “Humanitarian of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation, Chef José Andrés is an internationally recognized culinary innovator, New York Times bestselling author, humanitarian, educator, and Emmy-winning television personality.

Born and raised in Spain, José is credited with popularizing the tapas concept in America with his first restaurant, Jaleo, and currently operates nearly 40 restaurants worldwide as the Chef/Owner of José Andrés Group. In 2010, Andrés formed World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

WCK has served more than 400 million nourishing meals around the world, from Puerto Rico to Morocco, Ukraine to Gaza. In 2023, Andrés founded the Global Food Institute at George Washington University, with the intent of producing cutting-edge research to create and improve domestic and global food policies, incubate innovative new food technologies, and lead critical conversations about the impact of food on the human race.

Andrés’ work has earned awards and distinctions including the 2015 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, and the inaugural Courage & Civility Award in 2021. Andrés was also named Washington Business Journal’s CEO of the Year in 2020 for his leadership and impact on the global business community and was awarded the Princesa de Asturias Foundation’s 2021 Concordia Prize for his humanitarian work.

British broadcaster, writer, and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, is best known for his innovative and educational television programmes focussed on the natural world.

His broadcasting career spans over 50 years and has seen Sir David visit every continent on the globe, documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. He has made and presented numerous landmark natural history series, including the iconic programmes Life on Earth, The Living Planet, Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Our Planet.

Amongst many other accolades, Sir David was knighted for services to broadcasting in 1985.

Cate Blanchett is an internationally acclaimed and multi-award-winning actress, producer, humanitarian, and dedicated member of the arts community.

In recognition of her continued advocacy for the arts and support of humanitarian and environmental causes, Blanchett has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in the General Division; the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society; the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; the Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film; and the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Award for expanding the roles of women in film.

She is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, and was honoured with the Crystal Award at the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos.

She is also a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival; an Ambassador for the Australian Film Institute and The Old Vic theatre; a BFI Fellow; and a Lifetime Ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation. Blanchett holds Honorary Doctorates of Letters from the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, and Macquarie University.

For over two decades, Gisele Bündchen has been deeply committed to environmental advocacy. She has worked closely for many years with the United Nations Environment Programme, helping lead UNEP’s awareness campaigns. Gisele has also been part of supporting many water conservation projects, including one she and her family created together; the Clean Water Project in southern Brazil where she was born. In addition, she has been part of many initiatives focused on reforestation, regenerative agriculture, and wildlife protection across Brazil and around the world.

Through the Luz Foundation, Bündchen has championed problem-solving initiatives that provide funding and support for impactful projects in uplifting women/children, education, health, and the environment. Over the last few years, she has been allocating funds to protect all of the Brazilian biomes – Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, Mata Atlântica, Pampa, Pantanal – plus coastal marine ecosystems.

She is also a longtime supporter of The Lotus House, Miami, the largest women and children’s shelter in United States. As a proud board member, she has recently been part of funding the new Children’s Village opening this year, providing after school programs as well as therapeutic and social services. In addition it will house community based non-profits that will offer resources and programming to both sheltered and neighborhood children.

Christiana Figueres was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2010 – 2016. During her tenure, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, women’s groups, scientists and spiritual communities, financial institutions and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change to limit future global warming to well below 2°C and strive for 1.5°C.

Since then, Ms. Figueres has continued to foster rapid action on climate change. She is the co-author of ‘The Future We Choose, The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis’ and co-host of the popular podcast ‘Outrage and Optimism’. She also sits on the Boards of ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía.

A graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics, she has been awarded multiple awards from the international press and civil society, and been granted numerous honorary doctorate degrees from academic institutions including Yale, University of Massachusetts, Georgetown and University of Edinburgh.

Ernest Gibson is a youth climate activist from Fiji who currently sits on the 7-member United Nations Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change as the only Pacific Island representative.

Ernest has worked in climate change projects across the Pacific, supporting community-led approaches to Climate Diplomacy and climate policy development. He works as a communications and development professional and has worked for development cooperation agencies like the European Union and INGOs like Oxfam.

Ernest has a particular interest in development communications around bridging the gap between communities and the broader development sector, through circular communications and community engagement practices.

Ernest now works as a technical officer in Risk Communication and Community Engagement at the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Office.

Prior to joining the WHO, Ernest worked for the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office, coordinating the Public Outreach component of the UN75 Campaign and supporting digital communications for the UN in the Pacific, across 10 countries.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an environmental activist and member of Chad’s pastoralist Mbororo community.

She is a member of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) and served as co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change during the historic Paris climate conference.

Hindou began advocating for indigenous rights and environmental protection at age 16, founding the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) to build sustainable ecosystems and reduce nature-based resource conflicts.

Her work with indigenous communities at the local and global level has achieved broad recognition and support including, the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award; the 2020 Refugees International Holbrooke Award; the Daniel Mitterrand Prize; appointment as a UN SDG Advocate, Conservation International Lui-Walton Senior Fellow; and National Geographic Explorer Hindou’s TED talk on Indigenous knowledge meets science to solve climate change has surpassed more than 1 million views.

Luisa Neubauer, born in Hamburg in 1996, is one of the co-organisers of the climate strike movement and a prominent representative of the German movement in the media.

In 2018 she met the Swedish student Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Conference and then started the movement in Germany together with other activists. Since then, Luisa Neubauer has met various heads of state and government and participated in the world climate conference in Madrid and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

In January 2020, Luisa Neubauer protested together with Fridays for Future against Siemens’ participation in the planned Australian hard coal mine Carmichael and met Joe Kaeser several times.

Luisa Neubauer completed a bachelor’s degree in Geography in 2019. She is currently studying resource analysis and management as a master at the Georg-August University in Göttingen.

Together with Alexander Repenning, she published the book “From the End of the Climate Crisis – a Story of our Future” in 2019. She is the host of the Spotify Original Podcast “1.5 Grad” (1.5 degrees) and writes a column for the German magazine “Stern”. Luisa Neubauer lives in Berlin.

Photo Credit: Oguz Yilmaz

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development expert with over 30 years of experience.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, from 2003-2006, 2011-2015, and briefly as Foreign Minister, the first woman to hold both positions. She is Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and of the African Risk Capacity (ARC). She is Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

She also sits on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was recently appointed as AU Special Envoy to mobilise international financial support for the fight against COVID-19 and WHO Special Envoy for Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

She has been ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders in 2015, by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World consecutively for four years, by Time as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2014, and by the UK Guardian as one of the Top 100 Women in the World in 2011.

Indra Nooyi is the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (2006-2019); a Fortune 50 company with operations in over 180 countries.

In this role, Mrs. Nooyi was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo’s pledge to do what’s right for the business by being responsive to the needs of the world around us. As part of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo was focused on delivering sustained growth by making more nutritious products, reducing its environmental footprint and protecting the planet, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. During her tenure, PepsiCo grew net revenue by more than 80%, and PepsiCo’s total shareholder return was 162%.

Mrs. Nooyi has received many prizes, accolades and honorary degrees over the years. In 2007, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the country’s 3rd highest civilian honour. In 2007, she was named an “Outstanding American by Choice” by the US State Department. In 2019, her portrait was inducted into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Wanjira Mathai is a formidable force in environmental advocacy. She spearheads transformative initiatives to encourage sustainable and equitable development. With over two decades of strategic leadership, she has catalysed critical environmental and social change across Africa. As a Managing Director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Chief Africa adviser to the Bezos Earth Fund (BEF), she is shaping NGO and philanthropic work on the continent, directing attention, research, and funding to helping the most climate-vulnerable places and communities.

She has led the iconic Green Belt Movement (GBM) in Kenya as the former Chair- the organization her mother, Wangari Maathai (2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) founded in 1977-, pioneered investment in women entrepreneurs in renewable energy, and is driving a movement to restore 100 million hectares of African land. She has raised the prominence and visibility of global issues such as climate change, youth leadership, sustainable energy and landscape restoration.

Wanjira currently serves as a Leadership Council member of the Clean Cooking Alliance. She is a member of the High-Level Group of the Africa-Europe Foundation and the European Climate Foundation Advisory Council. Wanjira is one of a few Six Seconds EQ Practitioners in Kenya and was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential African Women in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani leader, was born in Ecuador’s Amazon, one of the most bio-diverse and threatened rainforests on the planet. She is the co-founder of both the Indigenous- led nonprofit Ceibo Alliance and its partner organization, Amazon Frontlines.

Nemonte led her people in an historic legal victory, protecting half a million acres of rainforest from oil and setting a precedent for Indigenous rights across the region. Her leadership has been widely recognized; in 2020, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize for Central and South America and the United Nations’ Champions of the Earth Award. Nemonte was also named in the BBC’s 100 Women list, the TIME list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, the TIME 100 Climate list, and is an honoree of the 2024 TIME Earth Awards.

She is the co-author of her acclaimed memoir We Will Not Be Saved (UK)/We Will Be Jaguars (US), written with her partner and Amazon Frontlines co-founder Mitch Anderson, and published by Wildfire in the UK and Abrams Books in the USA.

Yamazaki earned a Master of Engineering degree from University of Tokyo in 1996, then started working for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

In 1999, she was selected as an astronaut candidate and was qualified as a Soyuz-TMA Flight Engineer in 2004 and NASA Mission Specialist in 2006.

On April 5, 2010 Yamazaki was onboard Space Shuttle Discovery on the crew of STS-131, an assembly & resupply mission to the International Space Station.

After retiring from JAXA in 2011, Yamazaki has been serving as a member of the Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, and devoting herself to space education as an adviser of the Young Astronaut Club and a chairperson of “Sorajo (women in aerospace)” under the Japanese Rocket Society. As space education emphasizes the sustainability of the Earth, Yamazaki served as an official supporter of Education for Sustainable Development in 2014 and contributed to the round table of studying energy situations in 2017-2018.

To create an ecosystem in space as well as on Earth, Yamazaki co-founded Space Port Japan Association in 2018 and is serving as its representative director.