William will meet with young environmentalists during Earthshot Week in South Africa

The Prince of Wales will join young environmentalists taking part in the inaugural Earthshot Prize youth climate leadership program in Cape Town.

William will begin his four-day visit to South Africa by meeting some of the 120 future leaders who will be supported to develop leadership, storytelling and networking skills during Earthshot Week.

The future king is traveling to South Africa for the Earthshot Prize ceremony on Wednesday and other related events throughout the week, where five category winners will each receive £1 million to expand their plans to “restore” the planet.

William will meet youth program participants as they discuss their experiences working on environmental issues on the first official day of the youth program.

Ahead of his visit to South Africa, he said: “Africa has always held a special place in my heart: somewhere I found solace as a teenager, where I proposed to my wife and, more recently, where it inspired the Earthshot Prize.”

He has a high-level meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday in what is being described as a “follow-up” of the leader’s state visit to the UK in 2022.

The two men will sit down at the negotiating table and will be joined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in a meeting with his South African counterpart Ronald Lamola.

On Tuesday, at the start of a two-day summit of United for Wildlife Global, his umbrella organization fighting the illegal wildlife trade, William will also give what Kensington Palace described as a landmark speech on nature, the environment and supporting wildlife rangers. .

Hannah Jones, executive director of the Earthshot Prize, said Earthshot Week is “dedicated to celebrating environmental innovation, accelerating solutions to scale and inspiring young people to invest their time and talent in fixing the planet one solution at a time” and will “last over a year.” and half the work on the continent with our partners and stakeholders.”