Winners
from Afghanistan, China, Guyana, Japan and
the Maldives are Recognized as Pillars of
Transition to a 21st Century Green Economy
Seoul (Republic of Korea),
22 April 2010 - The 2010 Champions of the
Earth, the United Nations' highest awards
for environmental leadership, were announced
today.
The six winners, drawn
from the worlds of government, science,
business and entertainment, each exemplify
how action, inspiration, personal commitment
and creativity can catalyze a transition
to a low carbon, resource efficient 21st-century
Green Economy.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive
Director, today announced the winners of
this year's UNEP Champions of the Earth
awards as:
The President of Guyana
and passionate forestry and ecosystem infrastructure
proponent, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo
The President of the
Maldives and international climate change
campaigner, His Excellency Mohamed Nasheed
Afghanistan's Director
General of the National Environmental Protection
Agency and avid sustainability advocate,
Prince Mostapha Zaher
Japanese earth scientist
and pioneer of research into how the oceans
cycle carbon, Dr. Taro Takahashi
Chinese actress and popular green life-style
guru, Ms. Zhou Xun
American venture capitalist,
green energy entrepreneur and co-founder
of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla.
The trophies were presented
at a gala event in Seoul, Republic of Korea
during Earth Day and in conjunction with
the Business for the Environment Global
Summit (B4E), which is being attended by
more than 1,000 representatives from business,
government, and civil society.
Mr. Steiner said: "The
six winners represent some of the key pillars
upon which society can build Green Growth
and a development path to unite rather than
divide six billion people. Entrepreneur
Vinod Khosla has made it a personal mission
to realize a low-carbon path by establishing
investments in clean and renewable energy
start-ups."
"President Nasheed
is not only an articulate voice for the
vulnerable and the poor facing the challenges
of global warming, but a politician who
is showcasing to the rest of the world how
a transition to climate neutrality can be
achieved and how all nations, no matter
how big or how small, can contribute."
"Dr Takahasi has
pioneered the science of climate change
as it relates to the seas and oceans. In
doing so, his work not only underlines the
threats but also the policy choices governments
and investors must make to ensure the marine
realm remains healthy, productive and an
ally against climate change."
"Prince Zaher has
transformed environmental policy and laid
the foundation for sustainability in one
of the most challenging countries on the
planet at this moment in history. He has
balanced the day-to-day realities of Afghanistan
with a determination that his country will
have clean air and healthy water - backed
by laws - upon which a sustainable and peaceful
society can be built."
"Zhou Xun is an
actress and one of, if not the, most popular
and acclaimed celebrities in China. Her
well publicized statements, advice and life-style
choices are influencing millions of fans
to become more environmentally-conscious
citizens and consumers."
"Last but not least,
President Jagdeo is a powerful advocate
of the need to conserve and more intelligently
manage the planet's natural and nature-based
assets. He has recognized more than most
the multiple Green Economy benefits of forests
in terms of combating climate change, but
also in terms of development; employment;
improved water supplies and the conservation
of biodiversity," said Mr. Steiner.
The awards, first established
in 2004, recognize achievements in areas
of: Entrepreneurial Vision, Policy and Leadership,
Science and Innovation, Inspiration and
Action, and a special category for 2010,
Biodiversity and Ecosystems Management.
The Champions of the
Earth is an international environment award
given out every year by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). The award
recognizes individuals who embody commitment
and vision towards environmental leadership
through their action and their influence.
To date, the award has recognized 34 outstanding
environmental leaders.
ENTREPRENEURIAL VISION
- Khosla Ventures / Vinod Khosla
A legendary venture
capitalist and the co-founder of Sun Microsystems,
Vinod Khosla has been dubbed Silicon Valley's
'Mr. Green'. In September 2009, Khosla's
venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures, announced
it had raised US$1.1 billion in a "green
fund" that would be used to spur development
of renewable energy and other clean technologies.
The fund came at a time
when venture capital investments in green
technology were just beginning to recover
from a precipitous fall prompted by the
global economic collapse in 2008. Of the
US$1.1 billion, US$800 million will place
investments in more established technologies
while US$275 million will be used to make
smaller investments in earlier stage technology
companies. At the time of its announcement,
the fund was the largest launched since
2007 and one of the largest ever launched
for clean technologies.
Mr. Khosla has begun
several environmental start-ups to try to
reduce the world's dependence on petroleum.
He says the burgeoning revolution in oil
alternatives will be bigger - far bigger
- than the internet revolution of yesteryear.
In his personal life,
Khosla is carbon-neutral. He offsets his
own carbon emissions with TerraPass.com
and Carbonfund.org, and says he will soon
be carbon-negative.
In January 2010, Bill
Gates announced he has invested in Khosla's
green technology fund. When asked about
Khosla, Gates said: "He is backing
some great entrepreneurs. I get some exposure
to them as part of that. Innovation is called
for in a big way."
POLICY AND LEADERSHIP
- President Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives
His Excellency Mohamed
Nasheed has been the President of the Maldives
since 2008. He has received global recognition
for his efforts to curb climate change and
raise awareness of environmental issues,
particularly as it related to island-nations.
He featured prominently
in the international media in the run-up
to, and during, the United Nations climate
change conference in Copenhagen in December.
During that time, he even convened an underwater
cabinet meeting on the ocean floor to highlight
the grave climate change-related threats
to the Maldives.
President Nasheed has
pledged to make the Maldives the world's
first carbon-neutral country by 2020. He
has warned that Maldivians may be forced
to seek a new homeland should rising sea
levels make the Maldivians' archipelago
uninhabitable.
Moreover, he is campaigning
for the protection of coral reefs that helped
save his country from the devastating 2005
tsunami by absorbing the brunt of the powerful
earthquake-triggered wave.
President Nasheed, a
former journalist who was jailed several
times for his articles, formed the Maldivian
Democratic Party (MDP) while in self-proclaimed
exile. He returned to the Maldives in 2005
to begin promoting the MDP. In 2008, President
Nasheed won the country's first ever multiparty
presidential election by popular vote.
He has received several
awards in recognition of his pioneering
environmental work: Time Magazine named
him a 2009 Hero of the Environment, and
'The Age of Stupid', the film on the devastating
effects of climate change, presented him
with an award at the film's global premiere
in New York City during Global Climate Week
in September 2009.
President Nasheed continues
to urge various leaders from developing
or vulnerable countries like the Maldives
to break away from carbon-based growth and
to embrace green technologies for a carbon
neutral future.
SCIENCE AND INNOVATION
- Dr. Taro Takahashi, Earth Scientist, Japan
After earning a degree
in engineering, a doctorate in Earth Science
and a professorship at Queens College and
Columbia University, Dr. Taro Takahashi
is now a Senior Scholar at the Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
Dr. Takahashi has devoted
five decades of his life to discovering
how carbon cycles through oceans, land and
atmosphere, and his work is the foundation
upon which all carbon-cycle research is
now built.
Dr. Takahashi found
that the majority of global CO2 resided
in the ocean. He also made many important
observations of oceanic absorption and its
variation depending on water temperature
and seasons.
Dr. Takahashi explains
that his main research "is aimed at
understanding the fate of industrial CO2
released in the air" and hopes that
his study "will lead to a better understanding
and hence to a reliable prediction of the
oceans' capacity to absorb industrial CO2".
The idea is to estimate the extent of the
capacity of the oceans as a climate regulator.
With financial support
from the Ford Company, which recognized
him with the Ford Award in 2004, he has
been studying how climate change may alter
interactions between land and oceans, as
well as the solutions for mitigating these
alterations.
"He initiated the
methods we all use," said Richard Feely,
an oceanographer at the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration who studies
El Niño and carbon cycling. "Just
about everyone who has worked with him has
benefited from his wisdom and advice."
INSPIRATION AND ACTION
Prince Mostapha Zaher,
Afghanistan
Zhou Xun, Actor and Environment Advocate,
China
Prince Mostapha Zaher, Afghanistan
Afghanistan's 46-year-old
Director General of the National Environmental
Protection Agency (NEPA), Prince Mostapha
Zaher has laid the foundation for a sustainable
and peaceful future in Afghanistan. For
the past five years, he has worked tirelessly
for the environment in a country ravaged
by 25 years of war and continues to find
ways to bring clean, efficient and cost-effective
solutions to the citizens of one of the
world's poorest nations.
In 2004, after the fall
of the Taliban, Zaher and his family returned
to his homeland where he gave up his post
as Ambassador to Italy to take up the job
as Director General of the newly formed
NEPA. The opportunity revived Zaher's lifelong
dream of turning the royal hunting grounds
into a nature reserve open to all Afghans.
Since taking the post,
he has rewritten the nation's environmental
laws, including an act in the Constitution
declaring it the responsibility of every
Afghan citizen to "protect the environment,
conserve the environment, and to hand it
over to the next generation in the most
pristine condition possible".
In 2008, he attended
the Washington International Renewable Energy
Conference (WIREC), where he pledged to
improve air quality in Kabul between 10-12
per cent by the year 2012. His commitments
work in tandem with Afghanistan's Environment
Act of 2006. At the same time, NEPA announced
it would allocate at least 3 per cent of
its core budget to environmental research
and development.
In partnership with
the Ministry of Energy and Water and the
international community, NEPA hopes to apply
cutting edge solar and wind technology to
address environmental concerns in Afghanistan.
Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun, one of China's
most popular actresses, spends much of her
time promoting 'tips for green living' through
Our Part, a campaign she runs jointly with
the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). The actress encourages people to
reduce their carbon footprint through simple
changes in lifestyle, something that can
make a huge difference in a country the
size of China.
Zhou Xun points out
that if every car-owning family in China
drove just 200 km less in a year, carbon
dioxide emissions would be cut by 460,000
tons. She also states that small efforts
like unplugging appliances can make a huge
impact in China, a country with 300 million
TV sets and 500 million mobile phones.
She works on reducing
her own carbon footprint and follows her
tips in her own day-to-day life. She takes
her own chopsticks, mugs and shopping bags
with her wherever she goes and tries to
convince others to use reusable products.
She plants three trees for every 200 km
of her car travel and is planting many more
to offset her flights from 2008. And when
it's feasible, she bikes or walks to her
destinations.
Zhou Xun was named a
UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for China in 2008
with a special focus of promoting environmental
sustainability and will be the Green Ambassador
for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
SPECIAL CATEGORY (Biodiversity
& Ecosystems Management)
President Bharrat Jagdeo,
Guyana
Guyana's 45-year old
President Bharrat Jagdeo has gained international
recognition for his position on environmental
issues within his country and on the global
scale.
As the President of
a country with 40 million acres of untouched
rainforest, Mr. Jagdeo has been working
on inviting donors and investors to pay
for the protection of the forests through
the sale of carbon credits, or investments
in eco-tourism and pharmaceutical discoveries.
With the money he expects to generate from
this trade, President Jagdeo plans to improve
the country's coastal infrastructure to
protect it from the potential rise in sea
levels.
He has proposed that
the UN Reduced Emission from Deforestation
and Forest Degradation (REDD) program adopts
Guyana's model on forest management and
has encouraged the rest of the world to
live in a way "where protecting forests
is more economically prudent than cutting
them down".
He served as Guyana's
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance prior
to winning the presidency in 2001 and 2006.
Notes to Editors:
The Champions of the
Earth awards were established in 2004 by
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). The award recognizes individuals
who embody commitment and vision towards
environmental leadership through their action
and their influence.
To date, the award has
recognized 34 outstanding environmental
leaders including Al Gore, Brazil's former
Environment Minister Marina Silva, Sudanese
researcher Dr. Balgis Osman-Elasha and Olympic
Committee Chair Jacques Rogge, among others.
The 2010 prize categories
are: Entrepreneurial Vision, Policy and
Leadership, Science and Innovation, Inspiration
and Action, and a special category, Biodiversity
and Ecosystems Management.
This year, members of
the public had the opportunity to nominate
people online for the prize. More than 100
nominations were submitted from around the
world. The nominees were then shortlisted
and the finalists were chosen through an
internal review.
Thanks to a new partnership
with LG Electronics Inc., this year's Champions
of the Earth Awards will come for the first
time with a monetary prize of US$40,000
for each of the category winners. In addition
to the especially commissioned trophy created
by renowned Chinese artist, Yuan Xikun,
the cash prize serves as an incentive and
resource for growing and replicating the
laureates' work and their impact on the
communities they serve.
Quotes from the 2010
Champions of the Earth:
As he accepted the Award,
President Nasheed said: "I am delighted
to accept this prize on behalf of the whole
Maldives. It goes to show that by doing
the right thing, a small country can make
a big impact on the world stage. The climate
crisis threatens us all. What happens to
the Maldives today, happens to the rest
of the world tomorrow. We are all Maldivians
now."
See 'Further Resources'
for the speeches by the winners and by UNEP
Executive Director Achim Steiner.
For more information on the Champions of
the Earth awards, visit: www.unep.org/champions
For more information on UNEP's work on the
green economy, visit: www.unep.org/greeneconomy
About the B4E Summit:
B4E is the biggest annual
gathering of leaders from business, government,
NGOs and the media, which aims to foster
dialogue and business-driven action towards
a global Green Economy.
The summit, which takes
place this year in Seoul (Republic of Korea)
on 21-23 April, is co-hosted by UNEP, the
UN Global Compact, and the Worldwide Fund
for Nature (WWF). It will bring together
hundreds of business leaders to address
topics such as resource efficiency, renewable
energies, new business models and climate
policy and strategies.
For more information
on the B4E summit, visit: www.b4esummit.com
For more information on UNEP's work on the
green economy, visit: www.unep.org/greeneconomy
Barbara J. Krumsiek and Richard Burrett
named Co-Chairs of UNEP Finance Initiative