Prince William urges young people to educate relatives about environmental damage

The Duke of Cambridge has urged every young person to educate older relatives about the damage they cause to the environment, suggesting it could really “change the tide” and create momentum for climate change.

The Duke spent 45 minutes chatting to seven young people named Young Champions of the Earth by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

He told them that the campaign to improve the environment had grown hugely, offering a wealth of opportunity to anyone with even a “tiny bit of passion.”

The Duke focused on the need to remain positive and to channel optimism, which he explained was the thinking behind his Earthshot Prize, a global award designed to create significant change over the next ten years and which he suggested any one of them could be “in the mix for.”

The environmentalists were each recognised for their efforts to create a positive environmental impact in their local communities.

As they told the Duke, 36, about their various initiatives, he said he was “hugely honoured” to speak to such “brilliant young people doing such fantastic things” adding: 

“I’m incredibly inspired and just so proud about everything you guys have done.”

He added: “It’s a growth industry now, it's really important.

“There’s a lot of opportunity in the environmental space. If young people have a tiny bit of that passion that you have clearly shown a lot of, then there's a really good opportunity to find your feet and find a way and do good in the environmental world. “You are the shining lights of that movement and that interest. It allows people to see your path, your journey and go ‘do you know what, I want some of that, I can do that, I’ve got some ideas too.’”

The Duke, speaking from a home office at Sandringham, asked the group what they had most missed about nature during lockdown, when normal life had been so restricted.

Vidyut Mohan, from Delhi, said he missed getting out of the “concrete jungle” for hikes in the Himalayas but noted that lockdown had caused a huge improvement to air and water quality.

“It also taught me to live a lot (more) frugally, using things that I absolutely need instead of using things that I want or want to buy,” he said.

The Duke agreed: “Absolutely, it’s important that that message is communicated amongst everybody - like you said, it’s the needs versus the wants. 

“It helps us, with the pandemic, to really refocus our lives a little bit and work out what’s really important to us.

“A lot of people are missing that outdoors element aren’t they, and realising how special being outdoors, nature, the environment, and all the green spaces around the world, how precious and important they are to all of us.”

The Duke asked the young people, who are all aged between 18 and 30, how they had found working with their local communities, how people had reacted to their ideas and how affected they had been by the pandemic.

Nzambi Matee, from Kenya, who manufactures sustainable building materials, said it was hard to convince older people to change.

“It’s very hard to convince old people but it was not hard to convince my grandmother and her friends to stop using their bags,” she said.

“In fact they were telling me - ‘don't throw those bags away.’”

She laughed: “If we can convince my grandmother not to use plastic bags, we can do anything.”

The Duke agreed: “That’s a really really important point. Younger generations can do their bit despite not necessarily being able to or having the ability to produce projects like you guys.

“If every young person educates their family on the environmental impact they are having, that in turn is making a difference and changing the tide and creating that momentum.”

Lefteris Arapakis, from Greece, who co-founded an organisation that helps teach how to fish more sustainably and to clean up plastic, said the pandemic had “changed everything.”

He added: “We started to work with local communities more, to listen to their needs, try to create trust and through this, make them more self dependent and help them take local action instead of having to have the team from Athens to go there all the time. 

“We saw that our impact has quadrupled through this listening.”

Niria Alicia Garcia, from the US, who founded an indiginous-lead conservation group called Run4Salmon in California, said they had learnt to listen to the endangered Chinook salmon.

“They do things that they have never done before, so for us to restore them, we need to do things we’ve never done before,” she said.

“You know, they go up the creek, they go down to the ocean, they transform to become fish that can survive in the ocean.”

Max Hidalgo Quinto from Peru, who created sustainable technology to improve access to water, said he would advise young people to work out what they were passionate about so they could help their local communities.

“Good advice Max,” the Duke replied.

He told the group about the Earthshot Prize, which is supported by the UNEP, explaining that it had been launched to “bring hope and optimism back to the environment debate” and to “try and encourage change through hope and action rather than pessimism and despair.”

“Why do you think the optimism part, which I felt very strongly about, is so important?” he asked.

Fatemah Alzelzela, from Kuwait, who founded EcoStar which encourages tree planting and saves waste from landfill, told him: “We don't have another place to go and live. So one of the things we have to keep care of is the environment. It's not a property, it's a source. We cannot just focus on other things like the economy and politics and forget about the environment.”

Mr Arapakis said: “It’s our only choice to be optimistic about the future. We are not just talking about the environment right now, we are talking about the survival of humankind.

“I am from a family of fishermen and every year for the last 20 years we get less fish, my family has less and less of everything.

“Personally, I believe that we can make the change, because if we don’t believe that, we can just give up.  It’s our only choice. Optimism is our main weapon against the climate crisis.”

Xiaoyuan Ren, from China, who created a data platform for clean water, said it was the passing of ideas from generation to generation that gave her most optimism.

“At high school, I was inspired by Jane Goodall and Rachel Carson, who dedicated their whole lives to environmentalism,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe that people could think outside of themselves and work for the whole world. That mindset was really mind blowing for me as a kid.”

The Duke told the group: “You really have been fantastic and you’re fully deserving of this award. They are truly fantastic projects - huge congratulations for putting them together. 

“It can't have been easy, and then you had a pandemic coming as well. You’ve really had to take some hits and some bumps along the way to get your projects off the ground. 

“But they are inspiring, they are practical and they are tangible and you guys are making a real difference.

“Keep up the good work. Please keep an eye on the EarthShot Prize because hopefully that’s going to be something that all of you guys could easily be in the mix for.”