Prince of Wales meets Joe Biden in Boston before Earthshot awards

The Prince of Wales has met US President Joe Biden in Boston, where he expressed thanks for the “warm reception” he and his wife have received in the US.

He also updated the President on his Earthshot Prize before he and the Princess of Wales left for the awards ceremony at MGM Music Hall.

“Where’s your top coat?” Biden asked the Prince in recognition of the icy temperatures.

The meeting was arranged after a fortuitous last-minute diary change for Biden meant he was in Boston for a political fundraiser.

It was their fourth meeting in just 18 months, coming after the G7 summit in Cornwall, Cop26 in Glasgow and Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

US-based aides said Biden was “hugely supportive” of the Royal family and was personally very keen to meet the Prince, not least because the inspiration behind Earthshot chimes with his own views about the urgency of climate action.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said they spent 30 minutes together, sharing memories of Queen Elizabeth II.

“It was a warm, friendly and substantive discussion,” he said.

“The President was keen to learn about the Prince’s Earthshot Prize and some of the stories from the finalists, including the Great Bubble Barrier, a 2022 finalist in the Revive Our Oceans category.

“The Prince also shared his global, long-term ambition for the prize.

“The Prince thanked [President Biden] for travelling to London for the late Queen’s funeral in September. They both shared warm memories of Her Majesty.”

At the second annual Earthshot Prize ceremony, celebrities including David Beckham, Billie Eilish and Annie Lennox walked the tree-lined green carpet before the Prince hailed five new winners.

The Princess of Wales dazzled in a vibrant green Solace London dress borrowed from rental platform Hurr.

Her choice of gown was in keeping with the event's environmental message. All guests were asked to reuse or recycle their outfits, while flowers were grown within 100 miles of the venue and the food was plant-based.

The ceremony marked the culmination of a three-day visit to the city, during which the Prince and Princess gamely ploughed on with community-focused engagements while being battered from all sides with a Royal race row back home and the release of a dramatic Netflix trailer from Harry and Meghan.

Earlier, the Princess took her early-years message to Harvard University. Armed with a black notepad full of handwritten ideas and questions, she spent half an hour with experts from The Center on the Developing Child before greeting well-wishers outside.

The Princess, wearing a houndstooth dress by Emilia Wickstead, told the experts it will “be the first of many” visits. She said she had a lot to learn and wished to stay for longer, or even take a Harvard course.

“Apparently they say it’s never too late, there is always time,” she said.

The visit came just days after the Princess warned in the Telegraph that “not enough is being done” to nurture Britain’s youngest children, as she vowed to use her role to do “everything she can” to protect the next generation.

Meanwhile, the Prince visited the JFK Library with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the late president’s only living child.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Prince William on Friday described himself as “a stubborn optimist” who believes in “the power of human ingenuity”.

As he explained the inspiration behind the Earthshot Prize he wrote: “Dire predictions about our natural world aren’t the only side to this story and they don’t have to be our future.”

The prize, now in its second year, will award £1 million to five winners each year for a decade. It was inspired by President John F Kennedy’s concept of moonshots, which since the US mission to put a man on the moon has become shorthand for ambitious and ground-breaking goals.

The Prince issued a call to arms, saying: “We face a challenge as seemingly insurmountable as putting a person on the moon: reversing the damage that has been done to our planet, and putting ourselves on a path toward a more sustainable future.”

He added: “Repairing our planet is not going to be easy, but the case for taking action to protect our natural world is undeniable.

“Every day we learn of a new fact or figure, or we reach an alarming milestone that marks our seemingly inexorable – and rapid – march towards climate catastrophe.”

He said it was “easy to understand how people can feel overwhelmed, pessimistic, and fatalistic” but added: “There is reason for hope.”

The Prince said the Earthshot Prize would find the best solutions, celebrate and support them, to not only “supercharge their positive impact” and also “demonstrate to a despairing world that there is an optimistic way forward”.

He said: “In this critical decade, I invite you all to be optimistic, to support the game-changers and to believe in the power of human ingenuity.”