By Abbas Nazil
Nigeria’s Omoyemi Akerele, founder of the famous ‘Lagos Fashion Week’, has emerged as the only African and one of the five winners of the £5 million Earthshot Prize for 2025.
The £50 million prize, instituted in 2020 by Britain’s Prince William, is the world’s biggest and most prestigious environmental award dedicated to discovering and scaling innovative climate solutions.
The 2025 awards ceremony was held at the iconic Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in an event hosted by Brazilian broadcaster Luciano Huck.
The glittering night featured performances from pop stars Anitta and Kylie Minogue and was powered by The Earthshot Prize Foundation to encourage practical solutions to repair and protect the planet over a ten-year period
Four other winners of the 2025 prize who will receive £1 million each emerged from around the world. They are re.green of Brazil, The City of Bogotá in Colombia, The High Seas Treaty, and Friendship of Bangladesh.
‘Lagos Fashion Week’ won the award in the “Build a Waste-Free World” category for redefining Africa’s fashion industry through sustainability.
Under Akerele’s leadership, the annual Lagos Fashion Week has become a powerful platform for environmentally conscious creativity.
Designers wishing to showcase their work must demonstrate sustainable practices — from eco-friendly fabric sourcing and ethical dyeing to responsible production and transportation methods.
By aligning style with sustainability, Lagos Fashion Week has inspired change across the continent’s fashion ecosystem.
With support from the Earthshot Prize, Akerele plans to replicate this sustainable model across five African cities, including Kigali, Dakar, and Accra, by 2030.
Brazil’s re.green won in the “Protect and Restore Nature” category for restoring the Atlantic Forest using artificial intelligence, drones, and satellite imagery.
The company combines ecological and financial data to identify lands with the highest restoration potential, creating revenue streams through carbon credits and sustainable timber.
By 2040, re.green aims to restore one million hectares of degraded forest.
The City of Bogotá was named winner in the “Clean Our Air” category for achieving a 24% reduction in air pollution since 2018, despite rapid population growth.
The city has created clean air zones, planted trees in degraded areas, expanded Latin America’s largest cycle path network, and built one of the world’s biggest electric bus fleets.
The “Revive Our Oceans” category was won by The High Seas Treaty, a landmark international agreement designed to protect marine biodiversity in international waters.
The treaty, which will enter into force in January 2026 after 60 ratifications, provides a legal framework for Marine Protected Areas on the high seas and aims to conserve 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030.
Bangladesh’s Friendship, founded by Runa Khan, triumphed in the “Fix Our Climate” category for helping vulnerable coastal communities adapt to climate impacts.
The organisation, which began as a floating hospital, now provides health, education, and disaster relief services to over 7.5 million people annually.
By 2030, Friendship aims to restore 7,000km of coastline through mangrove and wetland rehabilitation while expanding disaster relief to reach 50 million people.
Now in its fifth year, the Earthshot Prize was aimed at driving ten years of environmental action — selecting five winners annually until 2030.
Each w0inner receives £1 million and long-term support from the Earthshot Prize Global Alliance, a network of global investors, innovators, and environmental organizations committed to scaling solutions for a sustainable planet.
Meanwhile, Prince William has called for renewed optimism in tackling global environmental challenges.
He spoke during the 2025 Earthshot Prize ceremony held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, just days before Brazil hosts the COP30 UN Climate Summit.
Addressing the audience, Prince William acknowledged the discouragement many feel amid mounting global crises but insisted that hope and determination remain essential to achieving progress.
“I understand that some might feel discouraged in these uncertain times,” he said. “I understand that there is still so much to be done. But this is no time for complacency, and the optimism I felt in 2020 remains ardent today.”
The Earthshot Prize, launched in 2020 and inspired by U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s “moonshot” initiative aims to spur groundbreaking innovations to combat climate change and environmental degradation.
Each year, five winners receive £1 million (approximately $1.3 million) to develop projects addressing critical issues such as pollution, nature conservation, and renewable energy.
This year’s ceremony featured appearances and performances by international and Brazilian stars including Kylie Minogue, Shawn Mendes, Gilberto Gil, Seu Jorge, and Anitta, as well as former Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan were also in attendance, underscoring the event’s high-profile nature.
During his Latin American visit, Prince William also announced new initiatives to support Indigenous communities and environmental defenders, highlighting their role in protecting ecosystems.
He is expected to represent his father, King Charles III, at the upcoming COP30 summit in Brazil, continuing the royal family’s long-standing environmental advocacy.
The prince’s remarks emphasized perseverance and global unity, urging world leaders and citizens alike to remain hopeful and take decisive action to safeguard the planet.
“The achievements of our winners tonight prove that progress is not only possible — it’s already happening,” Prince William said.
The Earthshot Prize, now at its halfway point toward its ten-year mission, continues to serve as a global platform for accelerating sustainable innovation and inspiring a new generation of climate leaders.
Christiana Figueres, Chair of The Earthshot Prize Board of Trustees and architect of the Paris Climate Accord, praised the winners’ determination, saying their success reflects the enduring spirit of collective action that began in Rio in 1992 and continues to inspire a new generation of climate innovators worldwide.