Prince William will visit New York next month ahead of the Earthshot Prize ceremony in Boston at the end of the year, Kensington Palace has announced.
Earthshot—William's eco-initiative—will co-host an innovation summit with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable foundation of Michael Bloomberg, on September 21.
The summit will take place during during New York City's Climate Week and the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
The trip will be William's first public visit to the U.S. since his younger brother, Prince Harry, and his sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, moved to California in 2020, citing fractions within the royal family and the intrusive British media.
William's last official trip to the U.S. was in 2014, when he toured New York and Washington, D.C. with his wife Kate Middleton.
Bloomberg and the Duke of Cambridge will both attend the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit next month. The event will gather the recipients of the 2021 awards and begin the countdown to the 2022 ceremony in December.
The initiative was founded in 2020 by William to identify and promote solutions to help repair the planet over the next 10 years.
Bloomberg, who is the UN secretary-general's special envoy on climate ambition and solutions as well as acting as a global adviser to the Earthshot Prize winners, said of the summit: "Accelerating the world's climate progress requires us to take urgent, ambitious action from every angle.
"As global leaders get set to gather in New York, the Bloomberg team is working with our partners Prince William and the Earthshot Prize to showcase the most innovative climate solutions and help them spread more quickly."
William is expected to deliver an address at the September summit—following Prince Harry's keynote address at the UN to mark Nelson Mandela International Day in July.
Harry spoke about climate change and assaults on global "freedom and democracy," which included the "rolling back of constitutional rights" in the U.S.
William's address is expected to be less controversial as he focuses on the work of the 2021 Earthshot Prize winners and looks ahead to the 2022 ceremony.
As the name suggests, the Earthshot initiative was inspired by President John F. Kennedy's 1962 "Moonshot" speech, in which he delivered the call for the U.S. to become the first nation to put a man on the moon.
The 2022 ceremony will be hosted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, alongside Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston.
When Boston was named as the venue for the event, Caroline Kennedy—daughter of JFK and Jackie Kennedy, and the U.S. ambassador to Australia—said: "There is no more important Moonshot today than repairing the planet and no better place to harness the Moonshot spirit than the city of Boston.
"It is a great tribute to President Kennedy that the Earthshot Prize will partner with the JFK Library Foundation to host the 2022 ceremony in Boston and inspire a new generation with the possibility of a sustainable future."
William is expected to attend the December ceremony as president of the Earthshot Prize, but Kensington Palace has yet to confirm whether he and Kate will be making the trip.
The announcement of his visit to New York follows the news that Harry and Meghan will travel to Europe in September to attend several charity events. It will be their first trip to the U.K. since Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee in June.
A spokesperson for the couple said: "Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are delighted to visit with several charities close to their hearts in early September."
The couple will spend at least two days in Britain, but royal experts believe a reunion with William and Kate to be "unlikely" amid reports of a rift between the brothers.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
