A definitive guide to the Duke of Cambridge’s global environmental competition is set to be published.

William has written the introduction to Earthshot: How To Save Our Planet, and the book features contributions from naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, environmental activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, singer Shakira and former astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.

It highlights the urgency of the environmental challenges facing the world, and will showcase some of the solutions taking place.

The Earthshot book
The Earthshot book (John Murray/PA)

The book’s publication in September will coincide with the five-part BBC One TV series focusing on different aspects of William’s £50 million Earthshot Prize.

Collin Butfield, former executive director at the international conservation charity WWF, and producer and director Jonnie Hughes, who were behind the David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet documentary, have written the Earthshot book and created the series.

They said in a joint statement: “The Earthshot concept is simple: we have 10 years to turn the tide, 50 ingenious ideas, and one goal – to save our planet.

“What we need is action and optimism.

“Our book reaches from the coral reefs of Mexico, via palm oil plantations in Borneo and sheep farms in Australia, to the forests of Kenya.

“It’s an explanation of how we’ve got to this point, and how – by acting collectively – we can fix it.”

The duke’s decade-long competition aims to harness the spirit of invention to repair the planet.

It features five categories, or Earthshots, which organisers say if achieved by 2030 would improve life for all.

They are: protect and restore nature; clean our air; revive our oceans; build a waste-free world; and fix our climate.

Every year from 2021 until the end of the decade, winners of the five Earthshots will each receive £1 million to be used for their ideas.

The prize takes its inspiration from the late US president John F Kennedy’s ambitious Moonshot lunar space programme of the 1960s, which helped advance technological achievements.

Earthshot: How To Save Our Planet will be published by John Murray in the UK, Europe and across the Commonwealth on September 30, and in North America on October 5.