- - Prince William Arrives in Brazil with an Excited Message Ahead of Earthshot Prize

Simon PerryNovember 3, 2025 at 11:01 PM

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Prince William at an Earthshot Prize event in London in June 2025 -

Prince William has arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ahead of his Earthshot Prize awards ceremony

The awards night on Nov. 5 will reward innovators who have ideas to tackle some of the world's most pressing environmental problems

The Prince, 43, will then head to Belém for a summit with world leaders at the climate control conference, COP30

Prince William is saying "olá" to Brazil!

The Prince of Wales, 43, touched down in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, Nov. 3, ahead of an exciting week of activities, meeting local people and highlighting the rich biodiversity of the country and efforts being made to halt the worst environmental damage.

He said in a statement as he left the U.K., "I am excited for my first visit and to experience Brazil’s vibrant culture, its extraordinary biodiversity, and above all, the warmth of its people."“With the world’s eyes turning to Brazil this week, there is no better place to celebrate bold climate leadership. Hosting the Earthshot Prize allows us to not only recognize those driving change but to be inspired by them. When we work together with optimism and courage, a more sustainable future is within our reach.”

Over the next few days, William is set to tour some of the most iconic landmarks in Latin America, including the world-famous Christ the Redeemer statue and one of the greatest football stadiums in the world, the Maracanã. It is his first official visit to the region and comes at a poignant time as the country marks 200 years of independence. Britain was one of the first countries to recognize the new state.

William's fifth Earthshot Prize award ceremony will be held at the city's Museum of Tomorrow on Nov. 5 and stars Australian singing sensation Kylie Minogue and singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes. There, the winners of five prizes that reward innovative and groundbreaking ideas to tackle environmental challenges will be unveiled.

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Prince William at a meeting for his Earthshot Prize in Cape Town, in Nov. 2025

His visit comes just days after he and his wife, Kate Middleton, and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, moved into their new home during the school vacation. Kate, 43, is not joining him for the five-day visit to Brazil.

Prince William arrived by commercial flight from London. He is aware of the questions about international travel in the light of his concern for the planet, and there will be hundreds of people jetting into the city and wider Brazil in the coming days, as world leaders and environmentalists and other delegates and VIPs congregate not just for Earthshot but the UN climate conference COP30.

A spokesman for the royal says, “The Prince created the Earthshot Prize to find solutions that would accelerate and restore the future of the planet. We are not looking back to the ice age but looking forward to the green age. The genesis of what we are building never has, and never will be, to not get into planes and not to get into cars.”

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and hosts half of the crucially important ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest. But it is also home to what William's office calls "innovators and indigenous communities who are at the forefront" of the battle to counter some of the world's press issues. It is those that he will highlight in the days to come.

It will also be another opportunity for William to show his burgeoning credentials as a world statesman. On the eve of the visit, the British ambassador to Brazil Stephanie Al-Qaq told PEOPLE, “To me, it seems that he is more than ready to step into that space. He's a very credible voice. And I think that I would like to do my bit as His Majesty's Ambassador to give him that platform to show what he's capable of.”

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Brazil's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, which Prince William is to visit this week

Prince William and his father, King Charles, share a deep, long-lasting commitment to conservation and combating the challenges of environmental degradation and damage. The monarch, 76, was consulted by William over the speech he will make on Nov. 6 at Belem at the World Leaders Summit that precedes the COP30 climate conference. That speech is not only for his father but for the U.K. government, setting the scene and context for the British input to the crucial COP30.

The ambassador believes Prince William's position as a member of the royal family can help him and his cause relate to ordinary Brazilians and those watching the coming days.

“They love the royal family," Al-Qaq says. "His father is very popular here, but, you know, if you just look around us now globally, some of the headwinds are quite strong, aren't they? So we do need to cut through to the next generation, who, quite understandably, are thinking about their futures and what this future looks like. And they're not just looking at it through an environmental lens, they're looking at it through a prosperity lens. So it's flipping the argument to say it's actually in our interests to do these things, and you then harness that creativity and you harness it into a sense of hope rather than a sense of this is all very bleak and what can we do about it?”

Talking about the Earthshot Prize and the poignancy of holding this year’s ceremony and activities in Rio, she said Prince William will have “evolved and developed” his thinking on the planet’s environmental problems.

"To me, he sees the problem clearly, and I think the choice of Rio is because he understands this at the moment to do that, and that he can cut through," she tells PEOPLE. "I think the reason he wants to go to Belem is because he can cut through with that argument.”

CEO of the Earthshot Prize, Jason Knauf, summed up the excitement they felt about the venue city. “With its energy, its people and its iconic landscapes, it is the perfect place to celebrate amazing environmental innovation and host our biggest and best Earthshot ever,” Knauf said.

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This year, as the Earthshot Prize is held in Rio, there have been twice the number of nominations from Brazil and South America compared to 2024.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”