The Earthshot Prize, an initiative founded by Prince William that aims to fund promising climate solutions, is a prestigious affair. Last year’s Earthshot awards ceremony, in Rio de Janeiro, featured a weeklong celebration with performances by Kylie Minogue and Shawn Mendes.
Now, a pall hangs over the prize proceedings, set to take place in Mumbai this year. A major funder of the awards, the global port logistics company DP World, has been rocked by recent revelations of close ties between its billionaire chief executive, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In one initially redacted email from 2009, bin Sulayem tells Epstein he had “enjoyed the torture video.” Bin Sulayem’s identity was later revealed by the Department of Justice after pressure from two U.S. representatives, Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, to make public more names. Bin Sulayem stepped down as chairman of DP World this month.
It’s one way the Epstein scandal has encroached into the climate and environment world.
The email revelations have put Earthshot under scrutiny. This month, an anti-monarchy activist group, Republic, asked the British charity regulator to investigate whether Earthshot had performed adequate due diligence on its funders.
It’s important to note that, while Prince William and bin Sulayem have been photographed together at official events, no information has been found in the files to date suggesting that the prince had any knowledge of bin Sulayem’s previous communications with Epstein.
Still, “William has lots of questions to answer about what he knew about Andrew and Epstein, and now he must explain his relationship with Sulayem,” Republic’s chief executive, Graham Smith, said in a statement. “It is not credible to believe the Foreign Office, security services or other advisers were not aware of Sulayem’s character.”
A representative for Earthshot declined to comment. The Charity Commission, the regulator, said it was assessing available information to determine next steps, if any. Neither Kensington Palace, which handles Prince William’s affairs, nor DP World responded to requests for comment.
Scientists had already questioned the feasibility of some projects DP World has funded through Earthshot, including an effort to grow coral in a laboratory setting to counter reef loss linked to ocean warming and pollution.
Environmental groups have said DP World’s funding of the project seems incompatible with the company’s primary business in carbon-heavy global shipping logistics.
“Coral reefs are a sexy topic, and there’s been a lot of funding for coral restoration initiatives,” said Giovanni Strona, a quantitative ecologist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy. “But there’s also an increasing recognition that the practical challenges to actually do restoration are really huge, and the costs of restoration are disproportionate.”
“What these projects do does not even marginally compensate for all the damage from emissions and pollutants,” Dr. Strona said.
As Earth warms, Antarctica’s mineral riches will be exposed
Prospectors are scouring the Pacific Ocean seafloor and Greenland’s vast landscape for valuable minerals to run the world’s economy. Antarctica might be next on their list.
A new study predicts that, as the climate continues to warm over the next decades, tens of thousands of square miles of Antarctica will lose their protective covering of ice, making valuable deposits of copper, iron, gold, silver, platinum and cobalt accessible.
For now, an international treaty bans mining in Antarctica. But countries can propose changes to the pact, known as the Antarctic Treaty, starting in 2048. — Eric Niiler
More climate news from around the web:
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Oil lobbyists are asking President Trump to stop attacking offshore wind farms, The Wall Street Journal reports. They’re concerned he will derail efforts in Congress to speed up permitting for energy projects.
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Satellite imagery has shown that melting sea ice is threatening emperor penguins in Antarctica, Inside Climate News reports.
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Hiroko Tabuchi covers pollution and the environment for The Times. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years in Tokyo and New York.
The post Epstein Is Shaking the Climate World, Too appeared first on New York Times.
