Indian Project 'Takachar' Awarded Prince William's £1.2 Million Earthshot Prize For Building Recycling Machine

Launched in 2020, each year five projects are picked that are working to find solutions to the planet's environmental problems and they are granted £1.2 million  ($1.4 million). 

David Oyelowo, left, announces Takachar of India, as the winner of the Clean Our Air award during the first Earthshot Prize awards ceremony at Alexandra Palace in London on Sunday. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

New Delhi: Indian company Takachar won the Earthshot "Clean our Air" prize for creating a portable machine that can turn stubble into fertilizer so the farmers aren't pushed to burn agricultural waste as it causes air pollution. 

Stubble burning in northern India has long been a major cause of air pollution, the smoke is likely to travel as far as Delhi, some 250km (155 miles) away, adding to the national capital's toxic haze.

Each year five projects are picked that are working to find solutions to the planet's environmental problems and they are granted £1.2 million  ($1.4 million).

Aside from this, the Protect and Restore Nature award was given to The Republic of Costa Rica from created a scheme paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems that have led to a revival of the rainforest. Costa Rica was a country that once cleared most of its forests, but it has now doubled the number of trees and is seen as a role model for others to follow. 

Coral Vita, Bahamas bagged the Revive our Oceans award for a project run by two best friends who are growing coral in the Bahamas, designed to restore the world's dying coral reefs. Using special tanks, they have developed a way to grow coral up to 50 times faster than they normally take in nature.

A project which was a collaboration between Thailand-Germany-Italy took the "Fix our Climate" award for creating AEM Electrolyser which uses renewable energy to make hydrogen by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a clean gas but it is usually produced by burning fossil fuels.

The "Build a Waste-Free World" to Italy's The City of Milan Food Waste Hubs, a project which tackles food waste and hunger by collecting unused food and giving it to people. This initiative has dramatically cut waste while tackling hunger. 

Environmentally conscious couture

These annual awards were created by Prince William and naturalist Sir David Attenborough last year in October, to reward people trying to save the planet. The ceremony took place at Alexandra Palace and was attended by Emma Watson, Dame Emma Thompson and David Oyelowo.

The celebrities attending were asked not to fly to the event, special attention was given not to use plastic on the stage and guests were asked to "consider the environment" when choosing an outfit. Watson wearing a dress made from 10 different dresses from Oxfam, BBC reported. 

According to BBC, there were performances by Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and KSI and in keeping with the eco message, the music was powered by 60 cyclists pedalling on bikes.

The next 10 years will determine the fate of the planet 

In a short film recorded for the ceremony in the London Eye and released ahead of the event on Sunday, William warns that the "actions we choose or choose not to take in the next 10 years will determine the fate of the planet for the next thousand".

"A decade doesn't seem long, but humankind has an outstanding record of being able to solve the unsolvable," he says.

"The future is ours to determine. And if we set our minds to it, nothing is impossible."

Then finalists were chosen by 15 judges, including Sir David Attenborough, actress Cate Blanchett and singer Shakira from more than 750 nominations. Prince William announced that the 2022 edition of the Earthshot Prize will be held in the United States.

The name 'Earthshot' is a reference to the "Moonshot" ambition of 1960s America which the then-President John F Kennedy pledged to get a man on the Moon within a decade.