The Prince of Wales has been given the keys to the city of Rio de Janeiro as his visit to Brazil gets under way.
Prince William was presented with the symbolic golden key by Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, as he touched down in the country for a stay that will see him hand out the Earthshot Prizes for 2025 and represent King Charles.
Rio is hosting this year’s Earthshot and the stand out moment of William’s Brazil trip will be the glittering awards ceremony which will feature performances from Kylie Minogue and Shawn Mendes who will walk the green carpet alongside the future king.
William will then hand out five prizes of £1 million each to five projects focused on protecting the planet and encouraging sustainability.
The Brazil visit began with William heading to Sugarloaf Mountain, one of the most famous parts of Rio, where he was greeted by Mayor Paes. The Prince made like every other tourist to Rio and headed up the mountain by cable car to enjoy some of its spectacular views.
The meeting with Rio’s mayor also touched on some of the wider aspects of this high profile trip as the Prince of Wales discussed the ongoing ties between the UK and Brazil which this year mark 200 years of mutual support across key areas, including the environment, between the two countries.
And William made the most of his bird’s eye view of Rio by enjoying it with some of those who had come along to see him. The first royal walkabout of his trip to Rio took place there.
The visit to Brazil is focused on a wide range of environmental issues and the next stop was a leadership conference for young people from Brazil and beyond who are involved in Generation Earthshot. The conference aims to give the 75 people involved climate leadership skills to take forward and, as it’s William, it also involved football.
The conference took place at the iconic Maracanã stadium and one of those hosting and coaching was legendary Brazil player, Cafu, who won the World Cup twice for his country. William was keen to talk about climate issues and to take to the pitch – he also took a few shots at goal during his time at the Maracanã.
Members of the Mini COP programme, for 11-16 year olds, also took part in the conference.
After his time in Rio and the Earthshot Prize, Prince William will head to Belem where he will represent King Charles at the COP30 Heads of State summit.
And just to prove he’s not totally obsessed with football, William’s last event of the day took him to the Copacabana beach where he tried out beach volleyball.
The Prince of Wales met up with Olympian Carol Solberg who runs a school aiming to change the lives of disadvantaged children through sport.
He also met first responders who keep the millions of visitors to the beach every year safe as well as those working to protect its natural environment.
But William being William it was the sport that kept him most interested and he took part in an energetic volleyball match to round off the start of a tour weighted with expectation.
