On Sunday, October 17, the names of the five projects and initiatives that won the Earth shot Prize in its first session were revealed, during a ceremony held at Alexandra Palace in the British capital, London, in the presence of a group of artists and stars. Including Sir David Attenborough.

The Earth Shot Award was launched by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, through his charitable foundation, the Royal Foundation, in recognition of the efforts made around the world to confront the major challenges that humans will face over the next ten years, such as the consequences of climate change, habitat loss and hunger.

A panel of experts examined 750 projects nominated by more than 200 institutions for the Earth Shot Prize (French)

The research process took 10 months, during which a panel of experts examined 750 projects nominated by more than 200 institutions.

Each of the five winners received a prize money of £1 million plus a global network of technical and professional support to expand their plans for worldwide application.

The award focuses on achieving 5 ambitious goals that, if achieved by 2030, will benefit everyone on the planet: protecting and restoring nature, combating air pollution, restoring ocean health, building a waste-free world and climate reform.

Coral Vita co-founded by Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern to preserve the reef (Earthshot award site)

Restoring the health of the oceans

The Earthshot winner in this category was Coral Vita in the Bahamas, founded by Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern to conserve coral reefs in the face of rising ocean temperatures and acidification.

The company grows corals in inland water basins using advanced methods and techniques that have been proven to help corals grow 50 times faster than conventional methods, as well as improving the resilience of coral reefs to the rising ocean temperature and acidification.

The company then returns the pond-farmed corals back to the oceans.

The two partners collaborate with local communities, private companies and local officials to raise the level of education, create jobs and raise funds to protect the environment.

The company hopes to build a network of coral reef farms around the world to restore marine ecosystems.

Perhaps this award enables it to achieve this goal.

Indian company Takachar founded by Vidiot Temohan and Kevin Kong to benefit from biomass economically (Earthshot Award website)

Eliminate air pollution

The Earth Shot award in this category was won by the Indian company Takachar, which was founded by Vidiot Temohan and Kevin Kong with the aim of utilizing biomass economically while reducing air pollution.

The company has developed a new technology that relies on small, low-cost equipment that can be trucked in on remote farms to convert agricultural waste into solid fuel, fertilizer and other chemicals.

This equipment reduces smoke from burning agricultural waste by 98%.

This technology, if applied on a large scale, may contribute to reducing millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Costa Rica has won for its efforts to increase forest area by 50% since 2011 (Earthshot Award website)

Protecting and restoring nature

The Republic of Costa Rica won in this category in recognition of the efforts of its people and Minister of Environment, Andrea Mesa Murillo, in saving Costa Rica's forests, whose area had been reduced by half in the 1990s.

In 1997, the state launched the “Payment for Environmental Services” initiative to give money to communities and land owners in exchange for protecting forests, restoring ecosystems, and planting trees.

Since then the forest area has increased by 50% in 2011.

The Minister of Environment stated that the award would be to expand the initiative to include other ecosystems, and to advise other countries to emulate the Costa Rican model.

Milan Food Waste Centers won for their work on cutting food waste in half (Earthshot Award website)

Waste free world

The food waste centers in Milan won this category.

Food waste centers were launched in 2019 with the aim of halving food waste by 2030.

Where each center collects surplus food or foodstuffs from supermarkets and companies before they are thrown into the trash, and presents them to NGOs, which prepare them in the form of meals, wrap them and distribute them to the poorest citizens.

Today, the city has 3 food waste centers, each of which saves about 130 tons of food waste annually before it ends up in the trash and prepares an estimated 260,000 meals for the poor.

Enapter won for converting electricity from renewable sources to clean hydrogen gas (Earthshot award site)

Climate reform

The winner in this category was the AEM Electrolyser, which converts electricity generated from renewable sources into clean hydrogen gas without producing air polluting emissions.

These small-scale units are produced by Enapter, which is based in Italy, Thailand, Germany and Russia.

These units are already used in various sectors, such as aviation, transportation and industry, as well as for storing electricity and heating homes.

The award will help the company produce its units on a larger scale, and fund further research into hydrogen generation, which is expected to become the fuel of the future.

The next "Earth Shot" award ceremony is scheduled to be held in the United States of America in 2022, and nominations will open in January 2022.