Prince William’s ‘Urgent Optimism’ Is Helping Tackle Climate Change, Says Earthshot Prize Finalist (Exclusive)

Gina KalsiMon, November 9, 2026 at 12:36 PM UTC

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Prince William; Bijal BrahmbhattCredit: Mark Cuthbert/Getty; Mahila Housing Trust -

Prince William has been described as a “thought leader” in the space of climate change and the environment by Bijal Brahmbhatt, the director of the Mahila Housing Trust

The Earthshot Prize finalist is working on cooling low-income homes in India to help protect women’s livelihoods

The organization says extreme heat can cost women working from home nearly 23% of their annual income, which she estimates to be $1,000 per annum

Prince William has been praised for turning his “urgent optimism” toward helping tackle climate change by an Earthshot Prize finalist.

The Prince of Wales, 44, was described as a “thought leader” by a representative of the Mahila Housing Trust, which is a finalist in the ‘Fix our Climate’ category.

The organization uses affordable reflective roof coatings to cool low-income homes by up to 41 degrees Fahrenheit and is helping pioneer climate risk insurance to protect women’s livelihoods, according to its bio on the Earthshot Prize website.

“One of the taglines of the Earthshot Prize is urgent optimism, and you know I do believe that the urgent optimism that the prince has sort of generated is also being turned into transformative action, and within a short timeline, and that was what the world needed,” Bijal Brahmbhatt, the director and managing trustee of the organization, told PEOPLE.

Prince WilliamCredit: Karwai Tang/WireImage

“[We] must congratulate him for sort of being the thought leader in the space that we have been working in for [so] long,” Brahmbhatt added of William.

Brahmbhatt said the Mahila Housing Trust started collaborating with women with a low-income 32 years ago when it was noticed that they continued working even in extreme temperatures.

“I think you know we wanted to promote the economic existence of women so that it would support poverty alleviation,” she explained.

In 2015, Brahmbhatt said they began to understand how heat was changing the community because of climate change.

“If you look at some of the Indian settlements of informal workers, they are [in] slums, and they have … tin sheet roofs and stuff, which trap heat inside the house much more than what it is outside,” she said. “That started impacting their economic productivity as well as health, and that’s what got us into starting to work for heat resilience and poor women.”

Bijal BrahmbhattCredit: Mahila Housing Trust

Brahmbhatt explained that women who work at home often have a lack of ventilation due to the roofing material and estimated that their houses are almost 42 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the temperature outside.

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“These women actually have an annual income of about $1,000 per annum on average,” she said. “And we map that they lose out almost on 23% of their income annually because of heat, and that’s a lot based on how much they earn. Therefore, they would never be able to come out of poverty.”

Women painting in IndiaCredit: Mahila Housing Trust

Brahmbhatt said the publicity the Mahila Housing Trust has received since becoming an Earthshot Prize finalist has been “absolutely amazing.” They applied to the environmental award in 2024 but did not make it to the next stage.

“I mean, the fact that [Prince William] is behind it will enable a lot more government and private sector attention to the space. And I do believe that, you know, collaborating with the private sector and the government will really bring about systemic change for the poor, and that’s what we are looking forward [to],” Brahmbhatt said.

The trailblazer says she is “really excited” for the awards evening in Mumbai on Nov. 17 — especially as an Indian organization.

“I think India is getting more and more recognition world over because of the kind of innovations that it is doing, and I do hope that some of the Indian philanthropists will be actually inspired to give more in the sector,” Brahmbhatt said.

William previously said that his passion for Earthshot came from his “genuine fondness of the winners” in a September 2026 conversation with the 2026 Earthshot Prize host, Karan Johar.

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“The passion comes from the genuine fondness of the winners,” William said in the video, during which some of this year’s finalists were announced. “You only have to spend 10 minutes talking to them and you realize not only how dedicated they are, but how brilliant their ideas are.”

The winners from five categories of the Earthshot Prize will receive $1.3 million to help “accelerate the impact of their innovative solutions,” per its website.

William founded Earthshot in 2020. The goal of the environmental prize is to spend a decade finding ideas for action to save the planet from its most pressing environmental problems. Since its inception, Earthshot has identified more than 5,600 emerging environmental innovations from over 150 countries.

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