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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry win award for saving the planet by limiting family to two children

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Updated on July 14, 2021

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been recognized by the UK organization Population Matters for limiting their family to two children.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been dubbed “role models” for their decision to have just two children in order to minimize their environmental impact.

According to the organization’s website, this is the first year that the charity, whose patrons include David Attenborough, has given out nine awards to celebrate “Change Champions” in honor of the United Nations’ World Population Day. The winners are described as “promoting reproductive rights, defending the environment, and enlightening the public about the challenges we face and the solutions that are available,” according to the organization.

Because the planet is “struggling to cope” with the present growth rate, Population Matters pushes for initiatives that encourage a sustainable population.

Population increase, according to the charity, is a significant contributor to environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and climate change, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are helping to guarantee “a better future for their children” and “providing a role model for other families.”

“Having a smaller family reduces our impact on the Earth, and provides a better chance for all our children, their children and future generations to flourish on a healthy planet. We commend the Duke and Duchess for taking this enlightened decision, and for affirming that a smaller family is also a happy family.”

Social media users were quick to criticize the Royals’ unique honor, with some calling it “nonsense” and others wondering why they hadn’t gotten an award for having just two children.

“Surely, being as intelligent as we all are, or as evolved as we all are supposed to be, we should be able to leave something better behind for the next generation,” Harry and Meghan told Vogue in 2019 about their intentions to have just two children to reduce their environmental effect.”

“When probably the most famous couple in the world say they choose to stop at two, they help to popularise and normalise that choice,” Population Matters writes on its website regarding its decision to acknowledge Harry and Markle.

“We didn’t, of course, give the Sussexes an award for having two children — which is far from unique — but for the context in which they’ve done it,” a spokesperson from Population Matters told Insider.

Wendo Aszed, the creator of a rural Kenyan women’s empowerment and community health initiative, Emma Gannon, the author of Olive, a best-selling book about the decision to be childfree, and Nairashe Maritsa, a Zimbabwean girl opposing child marriage, are among the other winners.

If Markle and Harry chose to have a third child, a spokesperson for Population Matters told Insider that the group would be “disappointed but relaxed”

“We hope they won’t, but people change their minds on all sorts of things,” the representative said. “It would certainly be likely to generate more debate on the question of family size, which would be a very positive thing.”

Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Harry’s firstborn, was born on May 6, 2019, and Lilibet Diana, was born on June 4, 2021.

Harry recently visited the United Kingdom to see a statue dedicated to his late mother, Princess Diana. On what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday (July 1), Harry and his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, gathered in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace to unveil the monument they commissioned for Diana.