AceShowbiz - Prince William has urged TV companies to keep environmental issues "high up on the agenda." The Duke of Cambridge has praised the "innovative" and "emotive" messages that are now being included in TV shows to help raise awareness of environmental issues - and he hopes it will continue in the coming years.

During a special video address at the BAFTA TV Awards on Sunday, May 8, the 39-year-old said, "Now more than ever, programme-makers have a unique opportunity to ensure climate change and sustainability remain at the forefront of our collective consciousness."

"By creating innovative, educational and emotive content for television, writers and producers are playing a unique role in ensuring the future of our planet is something that we all want to talk about," he continued. "Over the past year, we've seen some fantastic examples of this across a wide variety of programmes and genres.

"I hope you will all continue to carry on your invaluable work, keeping environmental issues high up on the agenda of programming in the years ahead."

Meanwhile, William previously criticised so-called space tourists, insisting that entrepreneurs should focus their attention on saving the planet, rather than leaving it.

He said, "We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live."

He also revealed that the late Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April 2021, aged 99, used to talk about climate change "a lot more, very early on, before anyone else thought it was a topic".

William - who has Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, with the Duchess of Cambridge - thinks it would be an "absolute disaster" if his children were having to discuss the issue in 30 years' time.