London, February 17 Mumbai will host the Earthshot Prize 2026, the world’s leading environmental award founded by Britain’s Prince William, Kensington Palace in London announced on Tuesday.
Describing India as one of the world’s most important forces for climate and nature, the heir to the British throne said the country’s scale has the power to inspire progress in the field of climate action.
This year’s “Green Oscars” will bring together environmental and business leaders, investors, and philanthropists who are spearheading change in Mumbai in November, when five Earthshot winners will receive £1 million each to accelerate the impact of their innovative solutions.
"We must continue to look to the future with urgency and optimism, which is why I am delighted that Mumbai will host the Earthshot Prize 2026," said William, founder and president of the annual prize.
"India is one of the world’s most important forces for climate and nature. What succeeds in India at scale has the power to inspire progress everywhere.
"With the largest population of young people in the world, there is a real sense of momentum – to not only imagine a better future, but to inspire change and make it a reality. Together we can rise to meet our greatest challenge, to repair and restore our planet by 2030," he said.
Mumbai joins the worldwide Earthshot host cities of Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Singapore, Boston, and London, and marks a recognition of India’s distinction as the home to more Earthshot Prize winners and finalists than any other country.
The announcement was made at a special event during the inaugural Mumbai Climate Week, where the “global megacity” was held as a symbol of the environmental opportunities facing the world.
Leaders from science, business, politics, and the arts heard from previous Earthshot finalists from India on how they are scaling solutions to “repair and restore the planet”.
"Sustainability and climate action remain top priorities for Maharashtra, and the Earthshot Prize will create global attention for India’s leadership and commitment to turning our goals into meaningful action on the ground," said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The prize organisers said that from clean energy and new technology to nature restoration, India is proving that environmental responsibility can drive economic growth.
Among the past Indian winners of the prize include two in 2023: S4S Technologies’ solar-powered dryers and processing equipment for combating food waste, and Boomitra for the adoption of regenerative agriculture through a verified carbon-credit marketplace.
While Kheyti's Greenhouse-in-a-Box was named an Earthshot winner in 2022 for helping farmers reduce climate risk and increase yields, Takachar's technology for massively reducing agricultural waste emissions won in 2021.
Besides the winners, several Indian projects have emerged as finalists each year since the prize was launched in 2020.
The 2026 prize will shine a global spotlight on 15 groundbreaking environmental solutions across five categories developed in collaboration with leading environmental experts: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-Free World; and Fix our Climate.
Inspired by former US President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 ‘Moonshot’ to land a man on the moon within a decade, the Earthshot Prize was created to spark the same spirit of collective ambition and action for our planet.
According to official statistics from the past five years, the prize has identified more than 5,600 emerging environmental innovations from 156 countries, supported 75 finalists, and awarded £25 million to help scale the winning solutions.
"Earthshot Prize Finalists have already: protected and restored over 1 million square kilometres of land and oceans – an area nearly twice the size of France; stopped 250,000 tonnes of waste reaching landfill – the same as 22,000 school buses; and captured 4.8 million tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of taking 1.2 million cars off the road for an entire year," the organisers said.
"Earthshot Prize finalists have collectively secured more than 500 million dollars in investment and philanthropy, setting the stage for unprecedented acceleration in solutions to repair our planet over the next five years," they added.
The Earthshot Prize, created with a mission to discover 50 winners over 10 years with the power to repair the planet, works with a range of founding and impact partners as well as a Global Alliance to support the scaling of the solutions discovered and selected each year.
