The Duke of Cambridge teamed up with Sir David Attenborough for the Earthshot Prize, which hands out awards of $1.3 million (£1 million) each to innovative projects aimed at saving the environment.
The prince gave an interview to BBC Radio 4 plugging the initiative, in which he was asked about perceptions his father’s outspoken comments on the environment were in the past viewed as “dotty.”
William replied: “I regularly wonder what my father’s banging on about and I’m sure every son thinks the same.
“But no, publicly, with my father’s environmental credentials, he’s talked about this for a long time and long before people cottoned on to climate change.
“So I’ve always listened to and learnt and believed in what he’s saying.
“But I know it’s a very hard sell, 40 years ago, to predict and see some of the slow moving catastrophes we’re heading towards.”
Charles was for many years mocked in the British media for his views on the environment, including his reported tendency to speak to his plants.
However, years later he has been able to remind the world he was talking about issues like plastic polution decades ago.
The Earthshot Prize pays out more money to each winner than the Nobel Prize, which offers a little over $1 million.
The scheme gives out five awards each year and will run for ten years in an effort to derail climate change, with judges including singer Shakira and actress Cate Blanchett.
Each award will cover one of five goals: protecting and restoring nature, cleaning our air, reviving our oceans, building a waste-free world and fixing our climate.
In an interview with Sir David, William said: “The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environmental prize there’s ever been.”
As she was announced as a judge, Shakira said: “Your children, my children – they have to find ways to reduce carbon emissions, to repair our oceans, to clean the air.
“So we need young minds to be informed and invested, which is why education is so important. But we can’t just stand still.
“We have to lead the way and we have to do it now.
“I know it’s ambitious and I know there will be so many challenges along the way but I also know there will be so many who will rise to the occasion.”
Blanchett said: “I feel extremely honoured to be a member of the Earthshot Prize Council, and humbled and invigorated to be amongst such extraordinary activists, experts and leaders in the environmental sector.
“All around the world, science and community-based initiatives are leading to ground-breaking inventions and solutions which, if provided with the platform and resources to be implemented on a larger scale, could have a significant and positive impact on the environment and global economy.
“The Earthshot Prize aims to do just that, and by providing this vital platform, we hope to refocus the narrative on climate change to one of hope and action.”
