Prince William is expanding his reach as a statesman as the future king prepares to arrive in South Africa to accept the annual environmental Earthshot Prize.

Prince William is expanding his influence as a statesman as he prepares to arrive in South Africa to host the annual environmental Earthshot Prize.

The British government is using his presence in Cape Town to arrange a meeting with the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, along with Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is making a special trip to the city to attend.

It is part of the UK’s huge commitment to developing and strengthening ties across Africa in areas as diverse as trade and climate change.

High Commissioner Anthony Phillipson said Tuesday’s meeting was in direct response to the President’s historic state visit to the UK, organized by the King – the first of his reign – in November 2022.

He told the Mail: “We are delighted to have the Prince of Wales here this week and are organizing (a number of) bilateral events to mark the occasion.

“We see this as a continuation of the 2022 State Visit, which we continue to see here as a historic moment between the UK and South Africa. The Minister of Foreign Affairs will also join the president in his visit, as he invited both of them.

“This is the highest level of engagement between the UK and South Africa… and a continuation of the state visit. This is a great chance to highlight some of the key themes in the UK-South Africa relationship around the environment, climate, nature, growth and opportunity for all, including the younger generation.”

Highlighting the importance of the royal family in international soft diplomacy, Mr Phillipson described how the state visit, which included a glittering state banquet, resulted in the signing of a number of important deals and agreements on everything from trade to science and technology. held in honor of the politician.

This week they hope to take the idea further with a formal biannual UK-South Africa forum.

He said: “When we prepared the state visit, we used it not only as a platform for interaction between the President and His Majesty the King, Mr Ramaphosa was also accompanied by a high-level ministerial delegation…. and we used this visit to sign new agreements.

“We used the state visit to demonstrate at the highest level that there is a strong partnership with South Africa and to support the agreements that we have maintained in the two years since.

“I think the royal family has a special role in terms of engagement, it’s the highest level of engagement we can offer a president.”

A Kensington Palace spokesman also acknowledged that improving global relations has been the “golden thread” running through the last three Earthshot Prize events.

Prince William is due to arrive in Cape Town tomorrow (Monday) as part of a four-day visit for the fourth annual Earthshot Prize on Wednesday.

It established its ten-year awards to identify and develop the most positive global solutions to the environmental crisis.

Five winners are chosen each year, each receiving a staggering £1 million prize to help ‘scale up’ their ideas.

This year’s finalists include both an alliance of indigenous groups working to protect the Amazon and a company that makes environmentally friendly refrigeration equipment.

The prince, whose wife, the Princess of Wales, has decided to stay at home with their children as she continues her slow recovery from cancer treatment, will also hold a series of events in communities around Cape Town.

Although Africa contributes the least to global warming and has the lowest emissions, it is the most vulnerable continent to the effects of climate change.

Earthshot CEO Hannah Jones said William wanted to spark a decade of “drastic and transformative change”.

To date it has already awarded £20 million in prize money and helped organizations access a further £77 million of resources to scale up their ideas. They also provide guidance and mentoring.

To honor the occasion and William’s visit, the mayor of Cape Town will this week replant a lily that became extinct in the region more than 100 years ago due to the loss of wetlands, which they have renamed the “Earth Lily”.

Wednesday’s awards ceremony, dubbed Prince’s “Super Bowl moment,” will focus on green solutions to “regenerate” the planet. It will be broadcast to 50 African countries with a potential African audience of millions and streamed online.

Cape Town’s Table Mountain and other landmarks will be illuminated in green during the city’s four-day Earthshot Week, which will feature William. 1,000 community activists were invited to the ceremony in recognition of their efforts.

The Earthshot Prize green carpet has been an integral part of the awards ceremony since William first hosted the awards three years ago in London, and last year in Boston and Singapore.

Guests are encouraged to ‘re-dress’ their wardrobes or spotlight African designers to highlight the importance of local talent and sustainable fashion, and the arrival at the iconic walkway will be broadcast live on the Earthshot Prize YouTube channel with hosts Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and Muzli. .

The awards ceremony will take place in the reusable dome, which has been used for a number of events, and the manufacturing ceremony will create around 650 jobs locally. It will open with composer and singer Lebo M performing “Circle Of Life” from The Lion King in a pre-recorded performance from the top of Table Mountain.