Prince William thinks the climate crisis has reached a "critical" stage.

Prince William has revealed his fears for the environment

Prince William has revealed his fears for the environment

The 41-year-old royal has stressed the need to urgently address the climate crisis during an event in London for the Earthshot Prize, the environmental competition that he founded in 2019.

William - who has Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, with the Princess of Wales - said in a speech: "When I first started thinking about how I might contribute to the collective global effort to protect our planet in 2018, I knew that I wanted to mobilise the enormous power of innovators, wherever they are in the world.

"From businesses, cities and governments; to activists, scientists and innovators, the ideas and ambition to set our planet on a healthier path do already exist. But this is urgent. We are in the critical decade now.

"And that is why, to have real impact, we must focus on supporting and developing as many solutions as possible and scale them at speed.

"It is not an easy task. We must overcome the challenge of getting capital to the right sectors, solutions, and geographies."

William hopes that Launchpad - an online match-making platform designed to connect innovators with investors and philanthropists - will play a big part in resolving the climate issue.

He said: "As Launchpad grows, we will continue to bring best-in-class innovations, sourced through our powerful search engine which identifies solutions around the world. But what we need now is the capital.

"We need you - investors and philanthropists - to join us in our mission. Join our community and invite your peers to be a part of this journey. Together, we can support our innovators to scale their solutions.

"It is only through collective action that we will reach the ambitious 2030 targets we have set to save our planet. It is only through action that we will create a sustainable future for generations to come."