MUMBAI, India, Feb 18: Mumbai was announced as the host city for The Earthshot Prize 2026 – the world’s most prestigious and impactful environmental award.
The announcement was made during the city’s inaugural Climate Action Week, underscoring India’s growing role as a global leader in climate and nature solutions. An evening event gathered leaders from science, business, politics and the arts to hear from previous Earthshot Prize Finalists from India on how they are scaling solutions to repair and restore the planet.
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, said:
“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. 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.”
Founded by HRH Prince William, The Earthshot Prize exists to inspire a decade of urgent optimism and environmental action. The celebration in Mumbai will bring together environmental and business leaders, investors and philanthropists who are spearheading change. The Awards Night will culminate in five Earthshot leaders each winning £1 million to accelerate the impact of their innovative solutions.
Founder and President of The Earthshot Prize, HRH 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. Together we can rise to meet our greatest challenge, to repair and restore our planet by 2030.”
Jason Knauf, CEO of The Earthshot Prize, said:
“We cannot wait to celebrate India’s climate leadership with the world this November. Earthshot 2026 Mumbai is going to be the biggest and most impactful in our history.”
Event speaker and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and sustainability advocate Dia Mirza Rekhi said:
“What drew me to The Earthshot Prize is its focus on solutions that are already creating real impact, not just conversations about the future. India is demonstrating that climate action can be practical, inclusive, and scalable and this moment is about recognising that leadership and taking it further.”
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 ‘Moonshot’ to land a man on the moon within a decade, The Earthshot Prize was founded by HRH Prince William in 2020 to spark the same spirit of collective ambition and action for our planet.
This year’s Prize will shine a global spotlight on 15 groundbreaking environmental solutions, under five categories developed in collaboration with leading environmental experts: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-Free World; and Fix our Climate.
Five years into the Earthshot decade, the Prize has identified over 5,600 emerging environmental innovations from 156 countries – over 2,400 in 2025 alone, recognised and supported 75 Finalists and awarded £25 million to Prize Winners to help scale their solutions. Earthshot Prize Finalists have already:
- Protected and restored over 1 million square kilometres of land and oceans – an area nearly twice the size of France.
- Stopped 250,000 tonnes of waste reaching landfill – the same as 22,000 school buses.
- Captured 4.8 million tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of taking 1.2 million cars off the road for an entire year.
Earthshot Prize Finalists have collectively secured more US$500m in investment and philanthropy, setting the stage for unprecedented acceleration in solutions to repair our planet over the next five years.
Mumbai joins previous Earthshot host cities Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Singapore, Boston and London in being a launchpad for environmental action.
As one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies, India represents both the scale of climate challenge and the opportunity to deliver solutions that work in dense cities, agricultural systems and complex supply chains.
What succeeds in India at scale has the potential to shape global climate progress. The multi-day celebration of environmental leaders who are delivering bold solutions to repair our planet will come to India for the first time in November 2026.
India is home to more Earthshot Prize Winners and Finalists than any other country, with seven Finalists to date, including four winners, reflecting the country’s depth of innovation and execution across clean energy, regenerative agriculture, waste management and air quality. They are:
- The State of Gujarat (2025 Finalist – Clean Our Air) The State of Gujarat in India has pioneered the world’s first trading scheme for particulate emissions, that lets businesses keep growing while providing clean, healthier air for its citizens.
- S4S Technologies (2023 Winner – Build a Waste-free World) S4S Technologies’ solar-powered dryers and processing equipment combats food waste – enabling smallholder farmers to preserve crops and turn produce, that might otherwise go to waste, into valuable products.
- Boomitra (2023 Winner – Fix Our Climate) Inspired by an event in India, and with multiple projects there (including the URVARA Project, Boomitra’s first and largest project in India involving over 12,000 smallholder farmers across nearly 50,000 acres) Boomitra is removing emissions and boosting farmer profits by incentivising soil restoration and the adoption of regenerative agriculture through a verified carbon-credit marketplace.
- Kheyti (2022 Winner – Protect and Restore Nature) Eight in ten of the world’s farmers are smallholders. Beset by climate-affected harvests, Kheyti’s Greenhouse-in-a-Box is helping them reduce climate risk and increase yields.
- Fleather (2022 Finalist – Build a Waste-free World) Flowers cast into the Ganges River contain highly toxic pesticides. Phool used this floral waste to make a sustainable alternative to leather.
- Takachar (2021 Winner – Clean Our Air) – Globally, we generate US$120 billion of agricultural waste every year, which is often burnt. Takachar’s technology massively reduces these emissions.
- Vinisha Umashankar (2021 Finalist – Clean Our Air) Its solar-powered ironing cart is a clean alternative to the charcoal powered street irons that press clothes for millions of Indians each day.