Prince William pays emotional visit to NYC firehouse near 9/11 site after Earthshot Prize summit - all the photos

Welcome! The Prince of Wales is on the second day of his trip to New York, and he will shortly be arriving at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit – where the 2023 finalists will be named. 

Prince William, 41, will address delegates alongside other speakers including former New York mayor and business news mogul Mike Bloomberg, a global adviser to Earthshot Prize winners, Dame Jacinda Ardern, Earthshot trustee former New Zealand prime minister, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft.

As we wait for the royal's arrival, take a look back at what William got up to on his first day in the Big Apple… 

RELATED:  Prince William's NYC visit day 1: Royal wades in East River for special cause

Earlier on Tuesday, William praised Ecuador for the "crucial" work the nation is doing in the battle against climate change, as he met with President Guillermo Lasso. 

During the audience - where an Andy Warhol print of the Prince's late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II could be seen - William said: "It’s amazing. This is really important it is historic what you are doing.”

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As chat turned to the weather, William remarked it was “pouring down” when he arrived on Monday to learn about a project to recreate oyster reefs in New York harbour.

With blue cloudless skies above Manhattan, William said: “We could have done with this weather.”

He went on to praise Ecuador for the “fantastic work” it has done for environment.

Although he admitted it takes a “business brain” to understand the finances.

William's two-day visit to New York is all about the Earthshot Prize, which he first launched in 2020. 

So what is the Prize and what does it want to achieve? Learn more in the video below...

The Princess of Wales has not joined her husband on his two-day visit to New York, but she has been carrying out engagements in the UK. 

On Monday, Kate tested out her flying skills and got quite the shock as she inflated a lifejacket during a visit to the Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Yeovilton in Somerset. 

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See more amazing images here...

And on Tuesday, find out the royal rule she bent as she visited youth intervention charity Streets of Growth in East London.  

The Prince of Wales has arrived at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit. 

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Ahead of the event, William tweeted: "Very excited to share our 2023 Finalists... Representing the five Earthshots, these are the latest cohort of solutions we can't wait to work with." 

The Prince received quite the introduction at the summit, with Michael Bloomberg kicking off the event. 

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In his opening remarks, Mr Bloomberg said: "The Prince has clearly won over Americans of all stripes. The Prince is viewed positively by 60 per cent of democrats and 60 per cent of republicans. Americans have not seen that kind of bipartisan consensus since 1776."

As the Prince took to the stage, he was asked about his trip so far, with his host saying: "Did you go running in Central Park this morning?" 

"I did yes, I decided to join the hoards of New Yorkers in their morning routine," William revealed. "It was beautiful getting some fresh air this morning."

The Prince of Wales confirmed at the summit that he will be in attendance at the third Earthshot Prize Awards, taking place in Singapore on 7 November. 

"Singapore is a city of nature so they get it," he said on stage. 

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He added: "We're super excited about going to Singapore."

Kensington Palace has not disclosed whether the Princess of Wales will join her husband at the Awards in November. 

The inaugural Awards took place at London's Alexandra Palace in 2021, while last year's ceremony was held in Boston, in the US. 

At the end of the summit, the 2023 Earthshot Prize finalists were revealed. 

The 15 global innovators, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and activists working to find cutting-edge solutions to climate change, will be honoured at The Prize’s annual awards ceremony in Singapore this November.

For the first time, the awards ceremony will be accompanied by a week-long series of events dubbed Earthshot Week.

These events will be aimed at mobilising and scaling innovative solutions to protect and repair the planet.

Members of the public will also be invited to experience local activations centred on the 2023 cohort of Earthshot Prize solutions.

Mike Bloomberg also closed the summit, telling delegates: "Earthshot is not about yesterday, it is about today and about tomorrow because the climate crisis is no longer some far off menace – it’s here right now, and the effects are only getting worse.

"The best scientific studies tell us risks of more extreme weather are continuing to rise and so it’s up to us to rise to the occasion and do something about it and Prince William is helping the next generation lead the way by building on his father and grandmother’s dedication to environmental stewardship.”

During the Q&A session at the summit, William said of the finalists: "As we’ve seen today, the Earthshot winners and the finalists bring that inspiration and optimism.

"And I think we’ve got to hang onto optimism and hope because it is the biggest driver of change, it is the biggest driver of innovation."

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Prince Albert of Monaco was among the delegates at the Earthshot Prize Innovation in New York. 

The royal, 65, was seen chatting with William ahead of the event, which featured a number of guest speakers, including Dame Jacinda Ardern, Earthshot trustee and former New Zealand prime minister, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. 

Albert was not joined by his wife, Princess Charlene, who returned to South Africa at the weekend to attend a number of charity events in support of her foundation. 

Acción Andina, Peru is one of the finalists in the Protect and Restore Nature Prize category. The grassroots, community-based initiative works across South America to protect native high Andean forest ecosystems for their invaluable benefits to nature and millions of people in the region.

"Our program is to restore the highland ecosystems along all the Andes. At the moment, we are working in five countries, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. We are not just a "planting trees" program. We are working with many different activities and we are uniting many different kinds of local communities," Constantino Aucca tells HELLO! 

"We are trying to restore all this watershed with this highland forest, which is the highest forest in the world and practicing and reviving local knowledge from these local communities. That is the communal world."

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He continues: ""We are not just planting 100 trees or 1000 trees. We are planting millions of trees and the only way to do it that is with the help of the local communities, the local communities are going to do it.

"In the other cases, they are going to be engaged. Our program is giving this possibility to these guys, giving leaders training, they are becoming part of the solution and we are providing jobs in that way.

"We are avoiding poverty. It is the reason why our program is so popular because people are actually seeing benefits from the conservation; in that way, this plan is still growing."

When asked what it means to have been recognised by Prince William's Earthshot Prize, Constantino said: "It is a huge opportunity, because this program has a lot of people around it. They have a lot of companies, even families with a heritage that can help us.

"This is the opportunity to tell them what's happening. Everybody talks more about Asia, Africa, but they don't talk about South America because people are not receiving the news.

"We are providing water to Amazonia. This is wonderful to be here. This is an opportunity. They're opening the doors, we need to open more doors for us especially."

WildAid Marine program (Global, US HQ) is one of the finalists in the Revive Our Oceans category. 

Meaghan Brosnan tells HELLO! what it would mean to win an Earthshot Prize. 

"So we as an organization, it's not WildAid that wins. It's all the people in Mexico," she says. "So to expand our impact, we just need to reach more locations. 

So while I don't know exactly where it will be, we do have a strategic focus on the coral reefs that are most likely to survive climate change, fisher communities and then also mangroves and seagrass nets, which are like the nursery grounds for all the baby fish of the world, plus capture tons and tons and tons of carbon and lock it away for millennia. So that's our next stage."

And what does it mean to WildAid to have the Prince's involvement?

Meaghan says: "It means that people who have a voice and who have power to act are, are doing something, they're not just saying the words, they're actually translating it into action."

For his final engagement in New York, William visited FDNY’s Ten House Fire Station to highlight the work of the city’s first responders and to hear about their experiences working in  the City. 

FDNY Ten House is located directly across from the World Trade Center site and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. 

It is home to Engine Company 10 and Ladder Company 10 and is one of only two FDNY firehouses that contains both an engine and a ladder company. 

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Ten House was nearly destroyed on September 11 2001 - five members of Ten House were killed and the station was severely damaged. Weeks later, they found Ladder 10’s fire truck buried under 40 feet of rubble. 

Ten House served as a critical command centre and recovery site in the days following 9/11, and it was two years before the firehouse was fully rebuilt. 

The west façade of the building features the FDNY Memorial Wall, a 56-foot bronze bas-relief sculpture depicting a firefighting scene.

William stopped to speak with royal fans following his visit to the Fire Station. 

One asked the Prince : "Will you bring Catherine and the children one day?"

"One day I'd love to," he promised.

Watch the moment in the clip below...

Prince William has completed his whirlwind visit to New York in support of his Earthshot Prize initiative.

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