Kate dazzles in rented green gown at Earthshot Prize ceremony

The Princess of Wales showed off her green credentials as her husband’s Earthshot Prize honoured environmental pioneers – by wearing a rented gown.

Kate dazzled on the green carpet with her dress of the same hue as five innovative ideas that William hopes will help repair the planet were celebrated and awarded £1 million in prize money to scale up their projects.

The event staged this year in the US city of Boston is one of the highlights of the Prince of Wales’s official calendar and has been dubbed the future King’s “World Cup” moment by Hannah Jones, the Earthshot Prize’s chief executive officer.

Malek, who presented the Fix Our Climate award, spelled out the environmental dilemma facing the planet before the ceremony, saying: “This is the greatest crisis that we are facing in our lifetime and it will probably be the greatest crisis that future generations are facing as well.

“But hopefully we can lessen that challenge for them by the actions we take right now.

“The innovation, the intelligent minds that are coming together to make changes and are being rewarded by the Earthshot Prize tonight will have a massive impact on what the world will look like.”

Kate wore jewels from her late mother-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales and chose an emerald green Solace London dress, which was rented from the platform HURR, and glittering heels.

The awards ceremony was the culmination of a three-day visit by the royal couple to Boston which has been overshadowed by the race row that saw William’s godmother Lady Susan Hussey resign as a royal aide after she repeatedly questioned a prominent black British-born domestic abuse charity boss about where she “really came from”.

A trailer promoting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix docu-series was released on Thursday, with the timing interpreted by some royal commentators as a snub to William and Kate.

Earlier, William met US president Joe Biden at the end of the royal’s visit to John F Kennedy’s Presidential Library and Museum, and held a 30-minute discussion which a Kensington Palace spokesman described as “warm, friendly and substantive”.

Kate presented the Clean Our Air award to Mukuru Clean Stoves, Kenya – a start-up providing cleaner-burning stoves to women in Kenya to reduce unhealthy indoor pollution and provide a safer way to cook.

She told the Earthshot guests: “To breathe clean air is something so many of us take for granted, but sadly for millions of people around the world, it is not a given.

“From smoke enveloping cities to the impact seen in nature, air pollution poses a threat that knows no borders.

Among the five finalists was UK winner Notpla, a circular solution creating an alternative to plastic packaging from seaweed which scooped the Build A Waste-Free World award.

William closed the event when he took to the stage to tell the audience: “I believe that the Earthshot solutions you have seen this evening prove we can overcome our planet’s greatest challenges.

“And by supporting and scaling them we can change our future.

“Alongside tonight’s winners and finalists, and those to be discovered over the years to come, it’s my hope the Earthshot legacy will continue to grow, helping our communities and our planet to thrive.”