Prince William tells Cate Blanchett an Aussie invention could save London’s River Thames

The other “William and Cate” sat down in London to discuss how a Sydney Harbour innovation could save the River Thames from becoming a “concrete coastline”.

Prince William sat down with Cate Blanchett to support a plan to save Sydney Harbour from becoming a “concrete coastline”, and call for its rollout on London’s Thames River.

Speaking in East London on Blanchett’s new Audible podcast, “Climate of Change”, the Duke of Cambridge said a “living seawall’ could improve biodiversity while defending the world’s major cities from rising sea levels.

“If you think about Sydney Harbour, which Cate, you know better than I do, it’s a classic example,” Prince William told the actor.

“Why can’t we put Living Seawalls all up and down the Sydney Harbour? Or the Thames here? It’s really quite easy to do,” he added. “The science behind it is simple but effective.”

Prince William was appearing in the second episode of Blanchett’s six-part podcast to discuss his awards program the Earthshot Prize, which featured the flagship program of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, “Living Seawalls”, as a finalist.

Blancett said there’s such a “beautiful simplicity” to the concept, which was founded in 2018 to create habitat panels, fitted to concrete sea walls, to mimic natural formations like rock pools and mangrove roots.

“It’s really possible to see how that could spread out globally across many, many seas,” Blanchett said.

Sydney Institute of Marine Science associate professor Katie Dafforn said on the podcast that the scale of the marine environment modified with built structures was “quite immense”, and is larger than the world’s natural habitats like seagrass and mangroves combined.

“We have over a thousand panels installed, mainly in Sydney Harbour, but we have a few sites around Australia and a few sites around the world,” she said.

The series, co-hosted by climate activist Danny Kennedy, will also feature filmmaker Adam McKay, who directed Blanchett in his “Don’t Look Up,” musician Imogen Heap, Irish politician Mary Robinson and economist Katy Milkman, among others.

In a promo for the series, Blanchett, who is an Earthshot Prize Council Member, said the podcast explores the “inspiring people and stories, the unbelievable inventions”.

We're going to feature some cool startups on Climate of Change @navajopower@ohmconnect@BiomassTakachar@NewEnergyNexus Shine on! pic.twitter.com/62dYd4r5qo

— Danny Kennedy (@dannyksfun) April 14, 2022

In the podcast’s second episode titled “The Disruptive Decade”, Prince William and Blanchett agreed they were both “stubborn optimists”.

“It gives me a lot of hope it’s going to happen, and I’m seeing it with my own eyes,” he said.