Prince William tells youngsters they're going 'to change the world' during warm welcome in Cape Town

The Prince of Wales was welcomed by cheers as he arrived at his first engagement in Cape Town, ahead of Wednesday's glittering Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony.

The Prince joined 120 young environmentalists from across Africa and Southeast Asia participating in the inaugural Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Programme. During an encouraging speech, the 42-year-old told young environmentalists you are "going to change the world".

Throughout the week, the attendees are taking part in immersive masterclasses designed to develop their skills in leadership, storytelling and networking around taking action on climate issues, and opening doors for them to secure future internships and jobs.

The 100 future leaders, aged 18 to 25, were selected from an application pool of nearly 2,000 from 50 of the 54 African nations.

An additional 20 youth leaders have been invited from Asia as a legacy from last year's Awards in Singapore.

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Prince William spoke to attendees at the Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Programme in Cape Town, South Africa.

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For his first engagement, the royal was seen chatting to actress Nomzamo Mbatha.

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During an off-the-cuff speech at the event at the Rooftop on Bree, the Prince of Wales told the 120 youngsters from across Africa and Southeast Asia: "The Earthshot Prize believes in you and the reason we set the prize up is for moments like this" after speaking with them about their ideas to tackle climate issues, which included a business making handbags out of old tyres. 

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"All of you in this room are future change makes, you're the leaders, you're the people going to make the difference going forwards," William added. "It's your platform, use it as you need to, take it away, play with it, turn it into something different.

"Because we believe in you and what you're going to do is change the world, I really believe that."

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Joining a group outside against a backdrop of Table Mountain, William was introduced to budding designer Xolile Mabuza.

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When she explained that her business, Tendalo Trading, makes handbags from rubber tubes, including car tyres, the Prince responded: "You're joking? [feeling the material] That's an old car tyre, that's incredible, look at that."

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"How much connection to the fashion world do you have? Because they would love you. We need to work on that," the royal said, as the group cheered.

With sustainable fashion being one of the focuses of Earthshot Week, William flew the flag for eco-friendly style, sporting a shirt by Spanish sustainable brand, ECOALF, and a matching blue and Green bracelet.

After working his way around the room, there was time for a group selfie, with William enthusing in a social media message that he was "already feeling inspired".

The Prince of Wales later challenged a group of teenagers to a game of touch rugby near Cape Town. He joined former South Africa internationals he dubbed "legends" to take on the fast-footed school children benefitting from a rugby project founded by ex-England rugby star Jason Leonard.

The future king played with former Springboks Joel Stransky and Tendai Mtawarira, nicknamed "The Beast" who joked about his last meeting with William. 

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"You're still as big as you were - bigger," the royal said after shaking hands with the  ex-player with the group laughing as they reminisced about meeting in a previously changing room.

Ahead of the first engagement, Hannah Jones, CEO of the Earthshot Prize, said: "This cohort are all passionate about driving transformative change in climate action and sustainability. 

"They're going to develop vital skills in authentic leadership in storytelling and networking over four impactful days.

"By the time they go home, we want them to feel that they have wind in their sails and our support to carry on with their mission."

It comes after the Earthshot Prize announced a series of programmes designed to inspire and engage children and young people from the age of five to join the movement helping to fix the planet.

The new initiatives includes today's Climate Youth Leadership Programme the Prince learned about, the Global Climate Accelerator Network (a collective of organisations that help fast-track projects focused on green issues, and Project Slingshot, which will launch in partnership with National Geographic.