Africa’s Earthshot Prize finalists call for investment in environmental solutions

by Bonface Orucho …..

Three of this year’s finalists for the annual global Earthshot Prize, speaking in Cape Town, South Africa, ahead of the awards, said their solutions had the potential to scale across the region, while the global application of solutions developed in Africa made it feasible for financing available in the global north to be allocated to the global south, one of the finalists said.

Financial capital was "mostly in the global north and we need to shift those resources to the places where they are needed," said Desmond Alugnoa, Co-founder of Green Africa Youth (GAYO), while speaking with journalists after a briefing by the event organizers.

“African solutions can go global.”

The global nature of the Earthshot Prize provides a great opportunity to highlight the potential for investments in African environmental solutions to change the world, Alugnoa said. That also meant financial capital in the global north flowing south.

“Getting that visibility is crucial to us, the solution we have,” Alugnoa concluded.

The Prince of Wales was due to arrive in South Africa on Monday (November 4). Earthshot Week has officially kicked off in Cape Town, with the fourth annual Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 6th November.

Africa was chosen as the fourth continent to host the star-studded event in acknowledgment of its enormous contribution to enhancing climate action and tackling the biggest environmental challenges our planet faces.

“Despite contributing the least to global warming and having the lowest emissions, Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the impacts of a changing climate. Yet in the face of these challenges, African innovators are already unlocking the potential of climate solutions to create green jobs, and address urgent environmental and health issues while improving the livelihoods of millions of people,” the event organizers said in a statement.