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By CNN Royal Correspondent Max Foster and Lauren Said-Moorhouse in London

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There was a moment that fell under the radar while the Prince of Wales was in Singapore this week.
 
All eyes were on Tuesday’s glitzy award ceremony for his ambitious $50 million Earthshot Prize, which was held in Asia for the first time.
 
There, Prince William and a star-studded cast announced this year’s cohort of winners (more on that later), but earlier in the week, the heir to the throne achieved his own, quieter, victory.
 
The Windsors overload their diaries when overseas, so it was no surprise that alongside his eco-initiative commitments, the 41-year-old prince filled his four days in-country with related engagements. One of those was his attendance at the first major overseas summit of his United for Wildlife project. 

Set up by William and his Royal Foundation in 2014, the initiative assembles leading figures from conservation, government and law enforcement to halt the poaching of animals and prevent the illegal trade of their parts.
 
At that event on Monday, William delivered a passionate speech, emphasizing the far-reaching repercussions of the slaughter and sale of the world’s most endangered animals, and revealed a landmark global partnership to end the practice.   
 
“I am delighted to announce today that United for Wildlife has led the creation of a world-first International Statement of Principles, agreed by governments to prevent, detect, and deter the financial activity that sustains the illegal wildlife trade,” the prince told delegates.
 
The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Singapore are some of the signatories that have committed to regular cooperation. The hope is that the collective support will lead to more seizures and arrests.
 
William also announced a joint effort with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol, in which the organizations will work together to disrupt the global criminal network.
 
One of the questions we’re often asked is about the real-world return from all the speeches, walkabouts and waving the royal family does. William’s announcements are one example of their convening power.

“I’m incredibly proud that our network has supported over 600 investigations, nearly 300 seizures of illegal wildlife products, and the training of over 110,000 people,” William said at the United for Wildlife Global Summit.
 
Having this kind of quantifiable impact is at the core of William’s vision for his time as Prince of Wales.
 
Careful not to dismiss the work done by the rest of his family, who “have been very much spotlighting brilliantly,” the prince told the traveling British press that he wants “to go a step further.”
 
“I want to actually bring change and bring people to the table who can do the change if I can’t,” he said.
 
William explained that he didn’t want to dilute his impact by being spread too thin across numerous social causes. Instead, he’s been mulling over how he can go “deeper” and “show my intent more.”
 
The late Queen Elizabeth II put charity at the heart of her role. When Charles was Prince of Wales, he pushed boundaries with his activism and now, as King, he is engaging with subjects avoided by his ancestors. For William, rather than just highlighting issues, he is drilling down into causes he has backed for years and is now trying to deliver measurable change for them.
 
It’s a gamble when royals get involved in potentially divisive issues rather than just casting a spotlight on them. They can find themselves under fire from the court of public opinion or risk inching into the political space. But in a world of shifting attitudes, William’s action-based approach could make him the more effectual royal that critics have been calling for.

The heir to the British throne was in Singapore from Sunday through Wednesday, and as usual he packed his diary with as many engagements as possible. While in the city state, he also had audiences with its president and prime minister, and even tried his hand at dragon boat racing on the Kallang River.

William last visited Singapore 11 years ago with his wife, Catherine, during his late grandmother's Diamond Jubilee year. The prince said the Princess of Wales was "very sorry" to have missed the latest trip but was back in the UK as their son Prince George was taking "his first set of major exams."

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Prince William shows off his green credentials, dressing sustainably by reusing a green velvet blazer that he previously wore at the inaugural Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in London in 2021. 

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Prince William views the HSBC Rain Vortex, an incredible 40-meter-tall (around 130 feet) indoor waterfall, at Jewel Changi Airport shortly after his arrival in Singapore on Sunday. He is accompanied by Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Senior Minister of State for National Development. 

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Prince William helps win a dragon boat race after joining a practice session of the popular local sport in Singapore on Monday. 

2023 Earthshot Prize winners speak to CNN.

Prince William and a star-studded cast unveiled the winners of this year's Earthshot Prize in Singapore at a glittering ceremony at the Theatre at MediaCorp. 

This year's cohort were chosen from a shortlist of 15 finalists by Prince William and the Earthshot Prize Council, chaired by Christiana Figueres, a former UN climate chief, who played a key role in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. Other members of the judging panel included Queen Rania of Jordan, climate activist Ernest Gibson and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, among others.

CNN was on the green carpet to catch up with a few of the winners and find out what their triumph means for the future of their projects:

Nidhi Pant, co-founder of S4S Technologies, which scooped the "Build a Waste-Free world" category, said the prize would allow her company to make "bolder moves (and) to experiment."
 
The firm's innovative solar-powered food-processing machines help farmers prolong the shelf-life of their products. Following its success on Tuesday, Pant said the company would be "looking to scale our initiative" to markets beyond India.
 
"We want to work with 1 million farmers... We want to work with 50,000 women entrepreneurs and give them better economic opportunities and dignified work. So, we are looking at different value chains and where in Asia we can expand."

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Another winner on Tuesday was Boomitra, which helps remove emissions from the atmosphere during food production and bolster farmers' profits by incentivizing soil regeneration and restoration. It took home the win for the "Fix Our Climate" Earthshot. 
 
Boomitra, which means "Friend of the Earth" in Sanskrit, uses satellite and AI technology to monitor 5 million acres of farmland around the globe and work with 150,000 farmers.
 
Its founder and CEO, Aadith Moorthy, said his team hoped the Earthshot Prize would "give us that shot in the arm" to scale up operations so that they could "truly move the needle on climate change."
 
He added: "We're excited that Prince William's involvement, and the Earthshot Prize, can give us that boost."
 
Emily Owen, marine program director of conservation organization WildAid, said her initiative's win in the "Revive Our Oceans" category offered it "an opportunity to reach more leaders (and) to protect more priority marine areas around the world - including vital blue carbon habitats such as mangroves and seagrasses that not only harbor key biodiversity (and) help ensure coastal livelihoods but are also a powerful solution against climate change."

Find out the full list of winners here. 

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Fresh off his trip to Kenya, King Charles completed one of his most important constitutional duties of the year when he attended the State Opening of Parliament in London on Tuesday. While the monarch delivers a speech, it is written by his government and sets out its legislative priorities for the year ahead. This was Charles' first opening of parliament as monarch — and the first from a male sovereign since 1951 — though he had delivered the speech before, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. Charles paid tribute to her in the opening lines of the 10-minute speech, saying he was "mindful of a legacy of service and devotion to this country set by my beloved mother."

King hits up London's Koreatown.

The following day, King Charles headed to the quiet London suburb of New Malden to visit its vibrant Korean community, ahead of a visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the UK later this month. His first stop was the New Malden Methodist Church, where he was eager to hear about Korea's culture and cuisine from representatives of community groups and local faith leaders. He was treated to a contemporary dance performance and heard the London Korean Hummingbirds Choir sing a traditional song, "Beautiful Country." He then stopped in at stalls showcasing Korean specialties and met up with young Koreans in a nearby cake shop. The London borough of Kingston upon Thames has one of the biggest expatriate communities of Koreans in Europe. New Malden itself is home to 10,000 Koreans, with a further 20,000 living in surrounding areas. 

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Opinion: Charles' 'regret' for Britain's past is only a first step.

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King Charles' reign has been marked so far by growing calls for former colonizing and slave-trading nations like Britain to recognize and atone for the harm they inflicted on Black and brown people in vast areas of the world.

Every time he sets foot in a British dominion, protectorate or former colony, the new monarch will have to acknowledge that harm, as he did last week in Kenya. 

Keith Magee is a senior fellow and visiting professor in cultural justice at University College London's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. In an op-ed for CNN, he takes a look at what's stopping the British sovereign from apologizing for the country's legacy of slavery.

Read the piece here. 

The Princess of Wales visited the Queen's Dragoon Guards for the first time on Wednesday as the regiment's new Colonel-in-Chief. Earlier this year, King Charles reshuffled military appointments for working members of the royal family and bestowed three new military roles on his daughter-in-law. He also named her as the new Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Air Force Coningsby base. Buckingham Palace said at the time that "the new appointments will continue to reflect the close relationship between the Armed Forces and the Royal Family in His Majesty's reign." Charles previously held the role of Colonel-in-Chief of the Queen's Dragoon Guards while still Prince of Wales. Also known as the Welsh Cavalry, the regiment has been active for more than 300 years and specializes in reconnaissance. Its soldiers were most recently deployed to Mali on a peacekeeping operation supporting the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission. During her visit, Kate received a briefing from senior regiment officers and spoke to service personnel and their families about their experiences. Find out more here.

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"Due to the shockingly low representation of gingers last year, and out of respect for my fellow endangered species, here I am."

– Duke of Sussex

Prince Harry gave stand-up comedy a go this week when he recorded a message for the 2023 Stand Up for Heroes event hosted by the Bob Woodruff Foundation in New York. Watch his message here. 

CNN's Oscar Holland contributed to this week's newsletter.