Prince William is preparing for a trip the US without Kate Middleton by his side next month. He will be touching down in New York in what is his first trip to America since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved there.
He will be attending the Earthshot Prize innovation summit in the Big Apple ahead of the award show later this year. William is making the trek across the Atlantic where previous winners of his £50million global environmental competition will be joining him.
Prince William and Kate will be travelling to the US together in December for the second Earthshot prize awards ceremony following the inaugural event in London last year.
William, who has a long-running rift with his brother Harry, is unlikely to make the journey from the east coast to the west coast to see his sibling next month, the Mirror reported.
Neither are the pair expected to meet the Sussexes during their whirlwind trip to the UK at the start of September.
It is the first time William has visited America since Harry and the Duchess of Sussex decamped across the Atlantic to California after quitting the working monarchy in early 2020.
The Earthshot team will be co-hosting the summit, which takes place during NYC Climate Week and the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, with Bloomberg Philanthropy.
William will deliver a speech, and the conference will be attended by last year's winners and finalists, The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance network, heads of state, global business leaders and philanthropists.
The summit aims to amplify The Earthshot Prize's call to speed up efforts to repair the planet.
Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, who is the UN Secretary-General's special envoy on climate ambition and solutions, said: "Accelerating the world’s climate progress requires us to take urgent, ambitious action from every angle.
"As global leaders get set to gather in New York, the Bloomberg team is working with our partners Prince William and The Earthshot Prize to showcase the most innovative climate solutions and help them spread more quickly."
Hannah Jones, chief executive of Earthshot, said: "Through a powerful discussion on collective action and investment in game-changing innovations, we will ask the brightest minds to turn urgent optimism into action."
Harry Potter star Emma Watson, wearing a gown made of 10 wedding dresses from Oxfam, and Dame Emma Thompson were among those who walked the "green carpet" at the first awards ceremony in October 2021.
The competition aims to discover and scale up ground-breaking solutions to repair the planet and £1million in prize money was presented to the winners in five categories or Earthshots – Protect And Restore Nature; Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans; Build A Waste-Free World; and Fix Our Climate.
Among the winners were projects restoring coral reefs, redistributing unwanted food to the disadvantaged and a project battling the issues contributing to air pollution in India.
The initiative was inspired by former US president John F Kennedy's Moonshot project which set scientists the challenge of placing an astronaut on the moon and returning him safely – and in the process helped advance mankind’s achievements.
The John F Kennedy Library Foundation, alongside the City of Boston and its mayor Michelle Wu, will be host partners of the Earthshot Prize ceremony.
The Earthshot Prize was founded by William and his Royal Foundation in 2020, and in July this year, the project became an independent charity, with the duke now its president.
William last visited the US in 2014 when he travelled to New York for a three day tour with the Duchess of Cambridge, who was then pregnant with Princess Charlotte.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here.
