Mumbai will host the Earthshot Prize ceremony in 2026, bringing Prince William’s global environmental awards to India for the first time.
The announcement was made during the inaugural Mumbai Climate Week, with the awards ceremony in November expected to bring together environmental leaders, philanthropists, and investors from around the world.
Founded by the Prince of Wales in 2020, the Earthshot Prize annually awards £1m each to five winners for designing solutions aimed at tackling the climate and nature crisis. The prize is structured around themes like protecting and restoring nature, cleaning the air, reviving oceans, building a waste-free world, and fixing the climate. It is designed to back practical innovations that can be scaled quickly, according to organisers.
Announcing the host country, Prince William said: “We must continue to look to the future with urgency and optimism, which is why I am delighted that Mumbai will host the Earthshot Prize 2026. India is one of the world’s most important forces for climate and nature. What succeeds in India at scale has the power to inspire progress everywhere.”
“With the largest population of young people in the world, there is a real sense of momentum – to not only imagine a better future, but to inspire change and make it a reality,” he said. “Together we can rise to meet our greatest challenge, to repair and restore our planet by 2030.”
Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra state, said hosting the ceremony would place a global spotlight on India’s climate efforts.
“The Earthshot Prize is the world’s most prestigious environmental award and I’m proud to announce that it will be hosted in Mumbai in November,” he said.
“Sustainability and climate action remain top priorities for Maharashtra, and The Earthshot Prize will create global attention for India’s leadership and commitment to turning our goals into meaningful action on the ground.”
India has produced more Earthshot finalists and winners than any other country. Previous Indian winners include S4S Technologies, which uses solar-powered dryers to reduce food waste among farmers, and Boomitra, which incentivises soil restoration through a verified carbon-credit marketplace. Kheyti’s “greenhouse-in-a-box” has supported small farmers facing climate-affected harvests while Takachar has developed technology to reduce emissions from agricultural waste burning.
Since its launch, the prize has identified more than 5,600 environmental innovations from 156 countries and awarded £25m to winners. Organisers say finalists have collectively secured more than $500m in investment and philanthropy to scale their projects.
Previous host cities include London, Boston, Singapore, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro. The 2026 ceremony will mark the sixth year of the initiative’s decade-long drive to accelerate solutions before 2030.
India is currently hosting the AI Impact Summit, the first of its kind in the Global South, and prime minister Narendra Modi is keen to host the UN climate Summit in the near future. This is part of a push to position India as a leader on climate action and a voice of the Global South.