On Monday, Prince William arrived by commercial flight to Newark airport. No private jets for the Royal who is carrying on his father’s long-standing cause and passion: saving the environment. Now that Charles is King, Prince William has stepped up and intensified his already vigorous advocacy for the planet.
In a statement shared by Kensington Palace, he said, “It’s so good to be back in United States. No one does optimism and ingenuity like the American people, so it’s only right we unveil this year’s Earthshot finalists in New York City.”
William, 41, will take part in some top-level lobbying, meet fellow environmentalists and philanthropists and business leaders. He will also be promoting his Earthshot Prize, whose mission is to find solutions to solve the planet’s crises.
The Earthshot Prize, launched by Prince William and David Attenborough, is awarded to five winners each year for their contributions to environmentalism. It was first awarded in 2021 and is planned to run annually until 2030. Each winner receives a grant of £1 million to continue their environmental work. The five categories were inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals; they are ‘restoration and protection of nature’, ‘air cleanliness’, ‘ocean revival’, ‘waste-free living’, and ‘climate action’.
The centerpiece of his visit is set to be the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit on Tuesday, when Prince William will join forces with other supporters of his environmental mission, including Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia. Also among the speakers and special guests will be former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern and José Andrés, Chef and Founder of World Central Kitchen.
He continued, “Eighty years ago, the world came together in this great city to find a new way, through the UN, to solve our shared challenges. I know our generation can take the bold action we need to make changes towards a healthy and sustainable world. The challenge may feel huge, but as John F. Kennedy taught us, we rise to the challenge not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And vital.”
His first stop in the Big Apple was to see an innovative project that is helping revitalize the waterways around the city.
The Billion Oyster Project is a nonprofit working to restore oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives. The reefs, which once flourished in New York Harbor, provide a habitat for many marine species, filter water and help shield New York City shorelines from storm damage. Since 2014, the Billion Oyster Project has introduced 122 million oysters across more than 19 acres of the Harbor, with the help of more than 11,000 students and nearly 15,000 volunteers.
Prince William met Pete Malinowski, Executive Director of the project, and was taken by boat to Governors Island, where he met volunteers, students and restaurateurs involved in the project.
The royal got into the spirit of the work, as he donned waders and a baseball cap and made his way into the water with the Manhattan skyline as the backdrop.
Always charming and relatable—especially to children–Prince William met with students from Harbor Middle School, who had no idea who their surprise guest at the event would be until shortly before. One girl said she guessed it might be “the mayor” because their teacher told them it was someone “very important.”
“It was a lot more comfortable than I anticipated,” Lynn Shon, a science, technology, engineering, art and math teacher at Harbor Middle School tells PEOPLE. “I think some of my students were really nervous about it, and some of them were more comfortable. By the time they were all handling the oysters and showing the prince all the critters in the tank, they felt more comfortable.”
“Seeing my students teach a prince, someone who has so much knowledge and exposure and awareness of what’s happening in the world, sharing their knowledge with him was really special,” Shon adds.
“He was just super nice,” Zelda de Zayas, a 12-year-old at Harbor Middle School tells PEOPLE. “I don’t know what I was expecting honestly, but it was very sweet and he loved to learn.”
“We taught him how to measure the oysters, we showed him what the different creatures were and more about how oysters help biodiversity in the harbor,” she added.
“Actually we found out today after school,” de Zayas says. “We knew this was gonna be happening, but Ms. Shon was keeping the special guest a secret for the element of surprise. We were all super excited and super shocked. We had no idea!”
Later on Monday, the royal met the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, during the UN General Assembly in New York. In just under a half hour, the two discussed the Earthshot Prize’s strongly alignment with the objectives of the United Nations, the Secretary-General’s recent trip to Nairobi for the African Climate Summit and their shared hope for COP28 to deliver a significant outcome on emissions reductions.
