Prince William heading to the U.S.A. for cause close to his heart

Prince William is heading to the United States of America to attend the second Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in September. He will be in New York City on Sept. 18 and 19 and will undertake royal engagements.

The 41-year-old will attend the summit held during New York Climate Week where he will unveil the fifteen finalists for this year's Earthshot Prize. The summit, co-hosted by The Earthshot Prize and Bloomberg Philanthropies, will also convene previous Earthshot Prize winners and finalists with policymakers, global business leaders, philanthropists, and climate activists to scale their innovative solutions.

The event will also hear a message from Michael R. Bloomberg, Global Advisor to the Winners of The Earthshot Prize. The winners of the 2023 Earthshot Prize Awards will be honoured during a ceremony that will be held in Singapore on Nov. 7. There will be five winners across the Earthshot categories —Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate— who will receive £1 million each to help them achieve their environmental solutions.

Prince William was scheduled to attend the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York City last year in September but had to cancel following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. He recorded a video message instead for the audience.

"Although it is the saddest of circumstances that means I cannot join you in person today, I am pleased to join you in video form as you gather in New York for the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit. During this time of grief, I take great comfort in your continued enthusiasm, optimism, and commitment to the Earthshot Prize and what we are trying to achieve," he said.

He also paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II saying that "protecting the environment was a cause close to my grandmother's heart" and that he knows "she would have been delighted to hear about this event and the support you're all giving our Earthshot finalists, the next generation of environmental pioneers."

Prince William travelled stateside with Kate Middleton to attend the second Earthshot Prize Awards in Boston in December last year. Aside from the ceremony, they also attended other engagements. They watched a Boston Celtics game, the Princess of Wales visited Harvard's Centre on the Developing Child, and the Prince of Wales met with U.S. President Joe Biden.

The future king launched the Earthshot Prize in 2020 with plans to award the prizes until the year 2030. The first awards ceremony took place in London in October 2021.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have previously visited the U.S.A. twice in an official capacity according to People. First, in 2011 months after their wedding, they went to California. Then in 2014, they spent time in the Big Apple where they met with Jay-Z and Beyoncé at a Brooklyn Nets game. They also visited the National September 11 Memorial and attended a gala dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is unclear if Kate Middleton will join Prince William on his trip to New York City in September. But the visit comes four months after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, together with her mother Doria Ragland, attended the Women of Vision Awards in Manhattan. They were involved in a two-hour "near catastrophic" car chase with the paparazzi after the ceremony in their attempt to lose the photographers' tail on their way to the home of a friend, where they were staying.

The trio ended up taking a yellow cab and were seen on video stopping alongside the road, with photographers taking their pictures, as they tried to maneuver their way out of the sticky situation. It is unclear if Prince Harry will reunite with Prince William in New York given reports about their continued rift.