Table Mountain is lit up in green as part of Earthshot Week, marking Prince William’s visit to the City of Cape Town. Picture: Henk Kruger/independent Newspapers
Cape Town - Earthshot+, the first official event as part of a series of events centred around the annual Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony, took place yesterday at Portside Tower in Cape Town.
This is the first time the Earthshot Prize, established by Prince William in 2020, is being held on the African continent, and hosted in Cape Town.
Prince William arrived in Cape Town on Monday.
The Earthshot Prize 2024 winners will be announced this evening, with a star-studded list of attendees and performers from all across the globe to be in attendance.
Earthshot+ consisted of three plenary sessions, with global leaders and innovative change-makers converging for discussions around African innovation, celebrating youth leaders, and addressing barriers preventing solutions from speeding to scale.
The first keynote address on “World Changing African Innovation” was delivered by Kenyan environmentalist, activist and Earthshot Prize Council member Wanjira Mathai.
“Globally there is a prevailing narrative that depicts Africa often as a continent marked with poverty and potential.
“This limited view often imposes what a famous speech writer called the Tyranny of Low Expectations. This narrative undermines the incredible dynamism and innovation that we find in the Africa I know and you know today. It is a detrimental narrative because it would have us focus on Africa’s future, rather than Africa’s present. It would have us actually consider Africa as a consumer rather than the producer that we must be, the hub of solutions that we see here all the time. It highlights the potential of Africa, rather than celebrating the abundance that exists on the African continent today. And for African innovators to truly flourish, we must all of us, embrace a more empowering narrative about the African continent that acknowledges the remarkable contributions and opportunities that our innovators are exhibiting today.”
United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary David Lammy addressed attendees and said, while natural disasters had a terrible impact on African countries, African countries receive just 3% of global climate finance flows.
“This has to change but it's about more than just funnelling more money. It must be about fundamental reforms in the international financial system to make it more efficient, more effective, and much fairer. That means the UK will be pushing for an international tax set of rules that work better for developing countries, for unsustainable debt to tackle it more rapidly, and for obstacles that inhibit the flow of private capitals to be finally addressed. As we will take every opportunity to advance work to reverse the decline in global biodiversity, which is as much a threat as it changes our climate. All this and more is on the agenda during my visit to South Africa.”
Lammy announced a UK Trade Partnership programme with South Africa to boost exports to decarbonise supply chains; and a renewal of a $350 million trade finance partnership through Standard Chartered Bank and British International Investment which would enable businesses across the continent to trade more easily with the rest of the world.
Lammy said he would be meeting with Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola in the afternoon, to further these conversations around promoting economic growth and the Green Transition.
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
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