The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established Champions of the Earth in 2005 as an annual awards programme to recognize outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors, and from civil society.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established Champions of the Earth in 2005 as an annual awards programme to recognize outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors, and from civil society.
Typically, five to seven laureates are selected annually. Each laureate is invited to an award ceremony to receive a trophy, give an acceptance speech and take part in a press conference. No financial awards are conferred. [1] [2] This awards programme is a successor to UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour. [2]
The prize includes $15,000 of financial support. [3]
In 2017, the program was expanded to include Young Champions of the Earth – a forward-looking prize for talented innovators, 18 to 30, who demonstrate outstanding potential to create positive environmental impact. The initiative is run in partnership with the Covestro, a plastics company. [4] It is awarded every year by UNEP to seven young environmentalists from around the world between the ages of 18 and 30, for their outstanding ideas to protect the environment. [5] [6]
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972. Its mandate is to provide leadership, deliver science and develop solutions on a wide range of issues, including climate change, the management of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and green economic development. The organization also develops international environmental agreements; publishes and promotes environmental science and helps national governments achieve environmental targets.
Maurice Frederick Strong, was a Canadian oil and mineral businessman and a diplomat who served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Janez Potočnik is a Slovenian politician who served as European Commissioner for Environment from 2009 until 2014. He was formerly Slovenia's Minister for European Affairs. In November 2014, he became co-chair of the International Resource Panel (IRP), a forum of scientists and experts working on natural resources management.
The Global 500 Roll of Honour was an award given from 1987 to 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award recognized the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. A successor system of UNEP awards called Champions of the Earth started in 2005.
Jeremy Leggett is a British social entrepreneur and writer. He founded and was a board director of Solarcentury from 1997 to 2020, an international solar solutions company, and founded and was chair of SolarAid, a charity funded with 5% of Solarcentury's annual profits that helps solar-lighting entrepreneurs get started in Africa (2006–2020). SolarAid owns a retail brand SunnyMoney that was for a time Africa's top-seller of solar lighting, having sold well over a million solar lights, all profits recycled to the cause of eradicating the kerosene lantern from Africa.
Carousel Productions, Inc. is the organization that currently owns and runs the Miss Earth and Miss Philippines Earth beauty contest. The annual events are produced in partnership with ABS-CBN Corporation. The organization is based in the Philippines.
Rajendra Madhavrao Shende, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and former Director in United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is currently serving as the Founder Director of Green TERRE Foundation. which is a not-for-profit organization working towards global goals of NetZero, Carbon Neutrality, Climate Change, Global Warming and Environment, as per various protocols of United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs). He is the Ideator and Director of Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN) which is a network of global universities which have pledged to make their campuses carbon neutral by achieving NetZero targets. This program has been widely acclaimed as innovative and practical solution which offers the students hands-on experience and expertise in NetZero and Carbon Neutrality. He previously held the position as Chairman of TERRE Policy Centre which is a not-for-profit organization engaged in the policy development and project based advocacy on the sustainable development. Before August 2011, he was the Head of the OzonAction Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme, Division of the Technology, Industry and Economics in Paris.
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative is a partnership between the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the global financial sector to catalyse action across the financial system to align economies with sustainable development. As the UN partner for the finance sector, they convene financial institutions on a voluntary basis to work together with them, and each other, to find practical solutions to overcome the many sustainability challenges facing the world today. UNEP FI does this by providing practical guidance and tools which support institutions in the finance sector to find ways to reshape their businesses and commit to targets for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, protecting nature, promoting a circular economy and supporting financial inclusion to address inequality. The solutions developed effectively form a blueprint for others in the finance sector to tackle similar challenges and evolve their businesses along a sustainable pathway. The creation and adoption of such a blueprint also informs policy makers concerned with sustainability issues about what would constitute appropriate regulation for the finance sector at large. Founded in 1992, UNEP FI was the first organisation to pioneer engagement with the finance sector around sustainability. The Finance Initiative was responsible for incubating the Principles for Responsible Investment and for the development and implementation of UNEP FI’s Principles for Responsible Banking and Principles for Sustainable Insurance as well as the UN-convened net-zero alliances. Today, UNEP FI provides sustainability leadership to more than 400 financial institutions, with assets of well over $80 trillion headquartered around the world.
Anitra Thorhaug is an American marine biologist, plant ecophysiologist and chemical oceanographer whose extensive work on the rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems has had a substantial influence on national and international policies on conservation around the world. She is president of the Greater Caribbean Energy and Environment Foundation, and president of the Institute for Seagrasses. She has had a series of professorships at universities and presently works at The Institute of Sustainable Forestry Ecophysiological Laboratories at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She is a member of the International Club of Rome and has twice been president of the US Association of the Club of Rome.
The Global Universities Partnership on Environment for Sustainability (GUPES) is a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) flagship programme, hosted by the Environmental Education and Training Unit (EETU), at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The partnership seeks to increase active environmental commitment and action with higher education institutions and policy institutions globally.
SEED is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and the green economy. It was initiated in 2001 by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). Under the name SEED Initiative it was presented as an “Example of Excellence” partnership inter alia by UNEP and BMUB at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 where it was also registered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a Type II Partnership. SEED was originally conceived as an acronym for Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development.
Leyla Acaroglu is an Australian designer, sustainability innovator, and educator. She is the founder of two design agencies, Disrupt Design and Eco Innovators. She also founded the UnSchool, a pop-up program that disrupts the mainstream way that knowledge is gained and shared; the program won the Core77 Design Education Initiative Award.
Sonika Manandhar is a Nepali computer engineer and a social entrepreneur. She co-founded a fintech company named Aeloi Technologies, an organization that helps fund women micro-entrepreneurs using digital tokens. She received the award "Young Champions of the Earth" from the United Nations Environment Programme's in 2019 and the National Geographic Society 2020 Emerging Explorer.
Louise Emmanuelle de Guzman Mabulo is a Filipino environmentalist, social entrepreneur, and chef. She is the founder of The Cacao Project, a seed-exchange and social business that works with over 200 farmers from the San Fernando area in the Philippines. She is the host of a National Geographic mini-documentary, Nat Geo Presents: Food Costs: DIET VS PLANET, exploring sustainable diets.
Anna Luísa Beserra Santos is a Brazilian environmental entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Sustainable Development & Water for All, a filtering system to disinfect rainwater collected in cisterns. She received the award "Young Champions of the Earth" from the United Nations Environment Programme in 2019, being until now the only Brazilian to receive the prize. Shell Company awarded her a prize in their LiveWIRE programme, in the category "Local prosperity" for her work on SDW. Anna Luísa is also a Fellow at the international organization Young Water Solutions.
Adjany da Silva Freitas Costa is an Angolan biologist and conservationist from Huambo who served as the Angolan Minister of Culture, Tourism and Environment from April to October 2020.
Natalie Anne Kyriacou OAM is an Australian social activist, social entrepreneur and environmentalist. She was appointed the Medal of the Order of Australia for her ‘services to wildlife and environmental conservation and education’ in 2018. She has served on the board of University of Melbourne’s Animal Ethics Committee and is presently a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. She is serving on the advisory board of the Women Leaders Institute. She is also known as the founder and current CEO of My Green World which she founded in 2012 to promote wildlife and environmental conservation issues.
Charlene Ren, also known as Xiaoyuan Ren, is a Chinese environmental engineer and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of MyH2O, an information platform that uses data to monitor water quality and improve access to clean water resources for rural communities in China.
Mariama Mamane is an environmentalist and engineer from Niger.
Niria Alicia Garcia is a Xicana environmental activist, human rights advocate, and educator. She is an organizer involved with indigenous-led species restoration efforts in California's Sacramento River watershed.
