Breaking: Prince William tells youngsters they’re going ‘to change the world’ during warm welcome in Cape Town…. Read More

The Prince of Wales is in South Africa this week in celebration of the Earthshot Prize Awards

The Prince of Wales was welcomed by cheers as he arrived at his first engagement in Cape Town, ahead of Wednesday’s glittering Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony.

The Prince joined 120 young environmentalists from across Africa and Southeast Asia participating in the inaugural Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Programme. During an encouraging speech, the 42-year-old told young environmentalists you are “going to change the world”.

Throughout the week, the attendees are taking part in immersive masterclasses designed to develop their skills in leadership, storytelling and networking around taking action on climate issues, and opening doors for them to secure future internships and jobs.

The 100 future leaders, aged 18 to 25, were selected from an application pool of nearly 2,000 from 50 of the 54 African nations.

An additional 20 youth leaders have been invited from Asia as a legacy from last year’s Awards in Singapore.

Prince William spoke to attendees at the Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Programme in Cape Town, South Africa.

During an off-the-cuff speech at the event at the Rooftop on Bree, the Prince of Wales told the 120 youngsters from across Africa and Southeast Asia: “The Earthshot Prize believes in you and the reason we set the prize up is for moments like this” after speaking with them about their ideas to tackle climate issues, which included a business making handbags out of old tyres.

All of you in this room are future change makes, you’re the leaders, you’re the people going to make the difference going forwards,” William added. “It’s your platform, use it as you need to, take it away, play with it, turn it into something different.

“Because we believe in you and what you’re going to do is change the world, I really believe that.”

When she explained that her business, Tendalo Trading, makes handbags from rubber tubes, including car tyres, the Prince responded: “You’re joking? [feeling the material] That’s an old car tyre, that’s incredible, look at that.”

With sustainable fashion being one of the focuses of Earthshot Week, William flew the flag for eco-friendly style, sporting a shirt by Spanish sustainable brand, ECOALF, and a matching blue and Green bracelet.

After working his way around the room, there was time for a group selfie, with William enthusing in a social media message that he was “already feeling inspired”.