Cochin International Airport is the world’s first solar power airport. Its entire operations are powered by solar energy. The biggest and busiest airport of Kerala state in India, and the fourth busiest airport in India in terms of international traffic, the solar project was pioneered by Managing Director Vattavayalil Joseph Kurian. Cochin International Airport has won the Champions of the Earth Award in the Entrepreneurial Vision category.
Curbing our environmental footprint
Earlier this month, Cochin International Airport was shut down. Severe flooding was just another stark reminder of the urgent need to address our global warming crisis. We believe we are already one step ahead of the curve. As one of the busiest airports in India, we are taking rapid steps to curb our carbon footprint and improve our energy efficiency.
When the price of power jumped from 6 to 10 cents per unit of electricity in 2012, we started to consider alternative powersources. At the time, solar power was becoming a more popular energy source. We wanted to explore the possibilities to harness this eco-friendly option and take advantage of our abundant sunshine as a tropical country.
From 100 kilowatts in 2012, today our capacity is 29.5 megawatts of solar energy, providing us with 120,000 units of power every day. We are 100 per cent reliant on renewable energy in all our daily operations - from powering the conveyor belts to the digital systems. We have experienced absolutely no drop in our efficiency or power supply; we also generate a surplus of energy which we can bank for cloudy days or the monsoon season, when sunshine is less frequent.
Extending our capacity
Last year, 10 million people passed through our airport. Of these, 5.5 million were international passengers. Since we became the world's first fully solar-powered airport, with the inauguration of a dedicated solar plant, we have placed solar panels on terminal roofs, hangars, over a two-kilometre long canal and car parking area. Currently, we have solar plants in eight locations including the biggest plant which is spread over an area of 45 acres.
These solar panels provide the airport with 29.5 megawatts to power its terminals and facilities. The grounds also house a solar farm, where organic vegetables are farmed, to be sold to nearby markets and airport staff.
After we became 100 per cent solar reliant, the government has taken a decision to encourage all airports to source at least two megawatts of power from solar power. There are also new targets in place to ensure that at least 100 gigawatts of power for the national grid are sourced from renewable sources by 2022.
The future is solar
We are already working with airports in other countries, for example Ghana, where we have set up an agreement to assist in installing solar-powered facilities in three airports across the country. We are entering a new era, where energy from renewable resources is the only sustainable solution towards a healthier planet. We are determined to lead the way and pioneer this development.
The Solar Impulse project became the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the globe in 2015. Last year, solar energy accounted for the biggest share of power generated from new sources. We believe we are paving the way for carbon-neutral air travel. We are optimistic about fully solar powered airlines in future. This is just the beginning.
BEIJING, 13 September 2018 – Propelling the recognition for the world’s most outstanding environmental achievements, UN Environment this week announced a three-year partnership with Weibo – China’s microblogging and social media giant – on the Champions of the Earth Award, the United Nations most prestigious prize for outstanding environmental achievement, upgrading the partnership to a new level.
The partnership comes as part of Weibo’s increased efforts to address environmental protection and sustainable development, having already supported several UN Environment campaigns across its networks in recent years, including World Environment Day and the #wildforlife campaign.
Weibo and UN Environment already signed a strategic partnership agreement last year at the UN Environmental Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya which would see both parties work together to amplify UN Environment campaigns on pollution and other urgent environmental issues in the world’s most populous nation. They also joined forces on content creation, as well as analysis of how people in China relate to environmental sustainability.
Earlier this year, the two partners further worked together to roll out a Young Champions of the Earth China Chapter, a youth-focused competition setting out to celebrate, empower and support talented young innovators in China aged between 18 and 30 with promising ideas to protect or restore the environment. Building on the momentum of this China Chapter, Weibo and UN Environment are looking forward to embark on new roads in their collaboration, this time focusing on the prestigious Champions of the Earth Award.
Launched in 2005, Champions of the Earth amplifies positive and compelling environmental stories: celebrating triumphs of hope over fear, truth over ignorance and action over indifference. The award is recognizing exemplary individuals and organizations whose actions have had a transformative positive impact on the environment.
“Environmental protection is highly valued in China. Weibo and UN Environment launched a number of activities together, providing a platform for the public to learn about and get involved in environmental protection through social media. It’s a great honor for Weibo to become a strategic partner of Champions of the Earth. Weibo will remain committed to showing China’s sustained effort on environmental protection to the world,” said Charles Chao, Chairman of Weibo.
“We have only one planet and we must all become its champions. I am delighted to welcome Weibo as a partner of UN Environment in recognizing the outstanding achievements of people for the environment. We cannot save this planet without the private sector playing a bigger role in building the kind of future we all want,” said Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim.
For two decades, the annual award has recognized dozens of environmental change-makers, drawing international attention to the issues they confront and the solutions they advance. Past laureates include Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Afroz Shah, Boyan Slat, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, ocean explorer and conservationist Sylvia Earle, Mobike, and the National Geographic Society, among many others.
This year’s Champions of the Earth Award will be held in New York on September 26, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Champions of the Earth:
The annual Champions of the Earth award is awarded to outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector whose actions have had a positive impact on the environment. Since being founded thirteen years ago, the awards have recognized 84 laureates – ranging from leaders of nations to grassroots activists – in the categories of policy, science, business and civil society.
About Weibo:
Weibo is a leading social media outlet for people to create, share and discover content online. It combines the means of public self-expression in real time with a powerful platform for social interaction, content aggregation and content distribution. Any user can create and post a feed, and attach multi-media and long-form content. User relationships on Weibo may be asymmetric; any user can follow any other user and add comments to a feed while reposting. This simple, asymmetric and distributed nature of Weibo allows an original feed to become a live viral conversation stream.
About UN Environment:
UN Environment is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. UN Environment works with governments, the private sector, civil society and with other UN entities and international organizations across the world.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Keith Weller, Head of News and Media, UN Environment. keith.weller@un.org
- Champions of the Earth laureate Boyan Slat and his Ocean Cleanup team launched their revolutionary marine litter cleanup system today.
- Research shows that a scaled-up fleet of 60 systems could eventually clean up 50% of the Patch in the next 5 years.
San Francisco, 8 September 2018 – UN Environment Champion of the Earth Boyan Slat and his Ocean Cleanup team launched the long-awaited, revolutionary marine litter cleanup system – expected to tackle 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic marine debris – at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco today.
System 001, as the first deployable model of the connected floating trash receptacles is dubbed, made its way out of the San Francisco Harbor towards the Great Pacific Garbage Patch under the watchful eye of hundreds of supporters, press, scientist and policymakers, where it will start to tackle one of the largest accumulations of marine litter on earth.
After four years of research and adjustments to the groundbreaking system, the design currently entails a 600-meter-long floater that sits at the surface of the water and a tapered 3-meter-deep skirt attached below. Together, the U-shaped floater and skirt are carried by the oceans’ natural movements (currents and waves), passively catching plastic debris along the way.
The system has initially been towed 240 nautical miles into the Pacific Ocean for trials. After completion of the trails, the 600-meter long device will travel the remaining 1000 nautical miles to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. According to research done by the Ocean Cleanup, a scaled-up fleet of 60 systems could eventually clean up 50% of the Patch in the next 5 years.
The now 24-year-old Dutch inventor Boyan Slat made waves around the world 6 years ago, when he first developed his plans for a system to tackle the massive patches of plastic debris floating in our oceans. For his relentless efforts to chart new territory in the quest for a solution to the ever-growing global problem of plastic marine debris, UN Environment awarded Slat the Champions of Earth Award in 2014.
Every year, at least 8 million tonnes of plastic leaks into our oceans. Besides washing up on our beaches and shorelines, plastic marine debris accumulates in five garbage patches around the world. The largest one of these, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is located between Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About UN Environment
UN Environment is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. UN Environment works with governments, the private sector, the civil society and with other UN entities and international organizations across the world.
About the Ocean Cleanup:
Founded in 2013, by then 18-year-old Boyan Slat, the Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization, developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. By utilizing the ocean wind, waves and currents, their passive drifting systems are estimated to clean up half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years’ time. https://www.theoceancleanup.com
About Champions of the Earth
The annual Champions of the Earth prize is awarded to outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector whose actions have had a positive impact on the environment. Since being founded thirteen years ago, the awards have recognized 84 laureates – ranging from leaders of nations to grassroots activists – in the categories of policy, science, business and civil society. Visit the website here: http://web.unep.org/champions.
For more information, please contact:
Keith Weller, UN Environment, Head of News and Media, keith.weller[at]un.org
The Thought For Food team likes a challenge – encouraging innovation in agriculture, and changing the way we eat. Having just closed the latest Thought For Food Summit in Rio, Brazil, we caught up with Program Director, Jared Yarnall-Schane, to ask what drives Thought For Food, and how young people can join the movement towards a more sustainable environment.
Q: What is your message to young people with an interest in agriculture?
A: Everyone must eat! We all eat food three times a day. Food is inherently impactful; we must engage with it every day, it impacts our communities and how we come together, for example to enjoy a meal. We believe that if you want to get to social impact and environmental change, food and agriculture provide a tremendous way to do that while bringing people together to tackle a common challenge.
Q: Why do we need to change the way we currently eat and make food?
A: Our population is growing, our climate is changing, and our food preferences keep evolving. To make sure there is enough safe, healthy and affordable food, we need to make significant changes to our food system. People want their food system to be transparent - from who grows it to how it arrives in the grocery store. They want food that is good for them and the planet. And perhaps most importantly people all around the world want food that tastes good.
Q: What is your vision for the future?
A: Our big goal is to help feed 9 billion people by 2050. We believe in the potential of young people: that’s why each year we put out a call for young people aged between 18 and 25 to change the status quo and the way we currently produce and manufacture food. This year we had the challenging task of selecting ten amazing finalists from 800 teams in 160 countries. This just shows the scope of the talent out there in the world. Participants came from Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Their solutions range from materials made from surplus poultry feathers to substitute polystyrene used in food packaging, to a water quality monitoring system specifically developed for refugee camps and areas with limited water access. We believe that by supporting innovations like this, we can change the future and build a better, more productive but environmentally sustainable way of living.
Q: How are you doing things differently at Thought For Food and why?
A: We think young people are naturally entrepreneurial and challenge the status quo. They possess the passion to implement the things that need to be changed. We use different and interesting approaches to engage young people: we have 200 next-generation innovators coming together to learn as part of our annual Thought For Food Summit in Rio, Brazil. We build skills such as masterclasses, where we bring in inspirational people to talk about fundraising, storytelling, and how to use data to enhance impact. We take participants through an intensive accelerator programme, where they receive mentorship and training to further develop their concepts by gathering customer feedback, building their organizational structures and sharpening their business models. We believe a mixture of these supportive techniques can inspire people towards change.
Q: What lessons did you learn from your recent Summit and what take-aways can you share?
A: Good ideas come from everywhere. This was proven to be true as we saw teams from all over the world take the stage as finalists in this year's Thought For Food Challenge. We also have continued to show that young people care more about collaboration than competition, with several of our young and growing startups opening their data and processes to other entrepreneurs. In addition, we learned that food and agriculture companies are excited to engage with the changing food ecosystem. They want to leverage their supply chain, connections, and experience for impact and to make the world a better place. We encourage readers to join us!
This is part of a Young Champions of the Earth series highlighting inspirational work of young people around the world. Find out more about the Young Champions of the Earth, powered by Covestro.
Young entrepreneur Badr Idrissi never waited to be told what to do. Instead, he looked for innovative solutions to problems. He would often take the family TV or video recorder to pieces. “My parents would always tell me to put it back together!” he says. “But that’s how I learned to fix things.”
Today, thirty-seven-year-old Idrissi, from Morocco, is CEO and co-founder of ATLAN Space, a deep technology startup using drones and artificial intelligence to crack down on illegal fishing and protect natural resources in Africa.
“I had a conversation with a friend, Younes Moumen who is also a Co-Founder of ATLAN Space, about our terrible track record in Africa on illegal fishing, poaching, deforestation,” he says. “We dug deeper into the statistics and what we found shocked us.”
They found, for example, that Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, lose an estimated US$2.3 billion in total to illegal fishing annually, as reported by Frontiers in marine science.
A former Microsoft Account Executive with a degree in Telecommunications Engineering, Idrissi and his co-founder worked hard to find a solution. They developed software technology that arms unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, with artificial intelligence.
“The drones use artificial intelligence to decide where to go. We give them information about protected marine areas, illegal fishing hotspots, and the weather. We also program them to distinguish each context,” he explains.
“For example, if a fishing boat is detected, the drone will analyze its behavior based on whether it is located in a protected marine park, what it is doing, whether there is a fleet, etc., to decide if its activity is illegal. It will use the context to decide whether or not to report the situation.”
Other drones can only cover a radius of about 70 kilometers and need a human pilot. ATLAN Space’s technology increases the operational range of the drones, and allows them to monitor very large marine areas without any human interaction.
Depending on the number of hotspots which need to be monitored, one drone can cover 10,000 square kilometers . They fly at over 300 meters, making them unreachable by non-military means.
“If the drone is 95 percent sure that behavior is illegal, it will send the relevant local authorities information detailing the time of the occurrence, the GPS coordinates, the location and any other relevant data that will help them decide on the course of action,” he says.
The novelty of the technology lies in its ability to bypass the need for human intervention over long distances. The drones can cover a large area and make autonomous decisions. For example, two drones can communicate and ‘decide’ to split up and track two different boats.
But Idrissi’s vision is not to replace humans altogether. “Our technology is there to help people do their jobs more effectively. Illegal activities destroy jobs, for example in the tourism industry,” he says.
ATLAN Space has won a National Geographic award to fund its “FishGuard pilot” partnership, which will deploy the drones for the first time, to tackle illegal fishing in the Republic of Seychelles.
FishGuard is a unique partnership that includes in addition to ATLAN Space, Trygg Mat Tracking - a Norwegian analytical non-profit and the international organization Grid-Arendal, to provide technological solutions to combat illegal fishing.
Idrissi estimates that this system costs half of what is already commercially available on the market, making it a highly cost effective option for tackling illegal activity, especially among emerging economies.
“The deployment cost of the FishGuard solution depends on many parameters and is specific to each project. It doesn’t only include the technological element, but also capacity building for a sustainable ocean resources management strategy,” says Idrissi.
“This is about more than detecting crime: we can build marine protection capacity; understand trends and patterns to see the bigger picture of what is happening at sea. We expect this will have a deterrent effect, because people will see that the area is monitored,” he says.
After deploying its solution in the Seychelles, Idrissi plans to expand the model to tackle other environmental problems like deforestation and illegal mining in future.
Idrissi believes that while there is much potential for startups like his in Africa, entrepreneurs and innovators still face challenges. “I do feel that today we focus on educating young people about how to be an employee. That doesn’t allow people to be creative - and that is risky.”
UN Environment Regional Information Officer for Africa, Mohamed Atani, notes that supporting young entrepreneurs in Africa is critical for sustainable development, and for finding more innovative solutions like FishGuard in future.
“Today more than ever, we need young people like Idrissi, who understand challenges in Africa, and who find solutions for which there is great demand,” says Atani. “Entrepreneurs are not people who fail to find a job – they have immense vision for the future. We must support that.”
“Service is my guiding value. One day we will leave this earth, and what remains is what we do for people,” says Omer Badokhon, the Young Champion of the Earth for West Asia. Born in a small village in war-torn Yemen, Badokhon’s daily life is filled with challenges ranging from conflict to no electricity or water.
Last year, Yemen was hit by the world’s largest and fastest-spreading cholera outbreak. Conflict and economic deterioration, lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation continue to fuel fears of another outbreak.
And yet despite these challenges, with no internet connectivity, little opportunity to travel or connect with other people, Badokhon continues to build his award-winning dream of supplying electricity for cooking, and fertilizer for growing food to his community.
His technology aims to provide daily meals and hope for his community. “When I hear people are dying in Yemen from cholera, I feel very sorry, because I know there is a solution to avoid this,” he explains.
“The organic waste is the main reason for cholera. We can solve this problem by converting it into biogas. This is a biochemical process in which we produce methane and carbon dioxide. We can collect it and use it for both energy and fuel.”
Badokhon says Yemenis, on average produce half a kilo of organic waste per day. This means each family has enough waste to provide cooking fuel to make a meal.
For Badokhon, and millions of others in regions where harsh realities of daily life make simple tasks like finding food a challenge, being an entrepreneur isn’t a smooth sail. During a period in our history when, in many countries, internet connectivity seems like the most simple and natural solution to many challenges, it’s tempting to think that anything is possible.
Yet in many countries, finding solutions involves overcoming major hurdles, and not just typing a problem into a search engine like Google. Badokhon is still searching for funding and partners to take this project to its next phase.
Eritai Kateibwi, is another Young Champion of the Earth. He lives in the Pacific, on one of the 33 the islands of Kiribati, which are among the most isolated in the world. The low-lying nation in the Pacific Ocean lies only meters above sea level at the highest point.
With a population of 114,000 and only one road, rising ocean waters, salt intrusion, and the cost of importing food has led to high rates of malnutrition and diabetes. Flooding and salt water have decimated food supplies for many families, and nutritious, fresh food is unavailable or more expensive.
But Kateibwi has been working hard to find a solution. “I developed a simple and affordable hydroponic process to grow nutritious food, because people do not have a healthy and nutritious diet,” he explains.
“The hydroponic system does not need soil so it doesn’t take up a lot of space, and can be elevated and raised above the ground so it escapes flooding. I grow the food in containers using water packed with nutrients instead of soil.”
Using his system, Kateibwi has successfully produced lettuce, Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes and melon. But, he explains, it’s hard to source the inputs needed for making nutrient-dense food for the crops.
Without the option of just going on Google to find out what’s available, Kateibwi is still trying to source local solutions to make sure the plants reach maximum growth. “The major challenge we have is producing our own fertilizer, as we lack resources on the island. We need to import ingredients which is very expensive,” he explains.
“We are undertaking a study to use local materials to produce our own fertilizer, and we are currently doing lots of experiments to make this more effective.” So how will he tackle this challenge?
“Experiments, research and research,” said Kateibwi. For Kateibwi and Badokhon, googling to find solutions isn’t an option. But, as they pave the way in their respective areas of research, and search for solutions, they set an example and raise hope within their communities that anything is possible.
Kateibwi and Badokhon have remarkable courage and perseverance – exactly the ingredients needed to overcome hurdles. Thanks to their efforts, when future generations take to Google to search for solutions in Yemen and Kiribati, they are more likely to find them.
In a remote village of the Himalayas, Kristin Kagetsu was struggling with a recipe. Not your average recipe for cooking up a delicious meal. This one was for making sustainable colored crayons. After trial and error, resulting in crayons of different shapes and sizes, Kagetsu finally hit on the right recipe and the crayons are still sold today.
But the experience taught her a valuable lesson: ingredients for truly sustainable products must be sourced locally. Fast-forward five years, and twenty-eight-year-old Kagetsu, now Chief Executive Officer of Saathi pads, has teamed up with co-founder, twenty-six-year-old Tarun Bothra, to turn their attention to a more pressing environmental and social problem.
In India, 84 percent of women lack access to sanitary pads. Even among the few who use them, many do not have alternatives for reducing plastic waste. On average, every woman using sanitary pads contributes 60 kilograms of pad waste in her lifetime, generating 100,000 tons of waste annually.
“Women are forced to use rags, cloths and even mud to stem menstrual bleeding, which exposes them to a high risk of infection,” explained Brotha. “Improvised alternatives are uncomfortable, unreliable and not very absorbent, making a day at work or school while on a period very difficult to manage.”
Saathi pads set out to improve the lives of women without creating a negative environmental impact. Their pads are 100 percent biodegradable, made from banana fibers, which are strong, abundant and absorbent. Unlike wood pulp or cotton, banana fiber is an agricultural by-product, so it does not take up extra land. The pads do not contain bleach and use eco-friendly adhesive.
“People don’t understand why we are taking a biodegradable product into rural areas,” said Kagetsu. “But sanitary waste affects these communities more directly, because they are using the land to grow food. The waste seriously impacts what they drink and eat.”
In an unassuming factory building on the outskirts of a bustling city, a group of women are busy assembling the sanitary pads. Ahmedabad is an important economic and industrial hub in India, and among its fastest growing cities. To date, the company has made hundreds of thousands of pads from banana fibers which would otherwise go to waste.
“We started off wanting to give women better access to sanitary pads, but realized that this is only a part of the solution,” explained Bothra. “We’re trying to build a sustainable future: we’re already ahead of the trend. The environment is part of our value chain. We don’t want to harm any part of our value chain,” he said.
“Plastic pads take hundreds of years to degrade, and worse, are frequently burned generating toxic fumes including carbon dioxide,” noted Bothra. “As sanitary pad usage increases in India, access to affordable, biodegradable, non-toxic pads is essential. The pads degrade within three to six months of disposal – 1,200 times faster than conventional pads,” he said.
The pads are also competitively priced. Commercial plastic pads can cost up to 27 cents per pad. Other eco-friendly versions sell for between 52 to 80 cents per pad. Saathi pads retail at 30 cents per pad. “Some products claim to be biodegradable, but they are not 100 percent so”, said Bothra. “Others may use organic cotton for one layer, but still contain plastic and other chemicals.”
Saathi pads launched sales in 2017 and currently, sells their pads on their website. Soon they will be available in supermarkets. Currently, the company is using sales to subsidize pads for rural women, who live in areas where menstruation is still a taboo subject.
In many rural communities, one in six women still miss about a month of work each year due to lack of access to modern feminine hygiene products. Saathi pads have already reached thousands of women and aim to increase access to sanitary pads for 1.5 million women by 2023.
Kagetsu points out that sanitary products are a necessity not an option for millions of women. “If we can make a dent here, this will have a long-term impact for the foreseeable future for women using sustainable pads, and for the environment,” she said.
Check out these 35 big ideas by young entrepreneurs around the world: they need your vote!
- 35 young entrepreneurs across 6 regions have made it to the regional finals for the 2018 cycle of the Young Champions of the Earth prize.
- The public can vote for their favorite ideas, with the winners being picked by a global jury.
- The 7 winning Young Champions will be awarded with seed funding, mentorship and access to a wide network to bring their ideas into fruition.
Nairobi, 12 June 2018 – UN Environment today announced the names of the 35 young entrepreneurs across 6 regions who have made it to the regional finals of 2018 cycle of the Young Champions of the Earth prize.
Now in its second year, ‘Young Champions’ is a global competition that seeks out entrepreneurs and innovators with big ideas to secure a sustainable future. All of the finalists’ ideas address urgent environmental issues in bold and creative ways.
The seven final winners will each receive the prestigious prize along with 15,000 USD in seed funding, mentorship from industry leaders and access to a wide network of influencers to bring their ideas into fruition.
“The Young Champions of the Earth prize is highlighting exactly how creative, dedicated and driven young people can be when it comes to the future of our environment,” Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim said. “These regional finalists are an inspiration to all of us, that hard work and a positive outlook are a powerful way to reach a goal, even one as ambitious as a sustainable world for all.”
“Covestro is proud to continue its full support for the second year of the Young Champions of the Earth competition,” says Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann. “As one of the world’s leading contributors of materials for sustainable development, we’re honored to partner with UN Environment to inspire and motivate young people across the world to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
From a pool of 760 submitted project ideas across a wide spectrum of impact areas, the 35 regional finalists stood out for their drive, the novelty an scalability of their ideas, and their potential to address pressing environmental issues.
Their proposals range from land-based coral farms that aim to replenish the dying coral reefs around the world and a plan for breeding fatty insects as a source of biofuel, to be used as an alternative for palm oil. They include educational initiatives involving board games, music and digital platforms to raise awareness about environmental issues; tackling plastic pollution through recycling and upcycling – into bricks and urinals – and an integrated system of wildfire detectors that can detect and prevent destructive fires.
The review of applications was conducted by a global team of 20 UN Environment staff in conjunction with representatives and affiliates of CoalitionWILD, notably: Change the System Executive Director Alan Jarandilla Nunez; CoalitionWILD Steering Committee Member Cécile Tang; Independent Educator and Conservationist Coralie Menet; and CoalitionWILD Ambassador Yoba Alenga.
Members of the public are being encouraged to view and rate the proposals on the Young Champions of the Earth website now. The non-binding public vote will close at 16h00 EAT on Monday 25 June. The public online vote will inform a global jury to select the 2018 Young Champions in September.
More information about all 35 projects and short biographies of their creators can be found on the Young Champions website.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About UN Environment
UN Environment is the leading global voice on the global environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. UN Environment works with governments, the private sector, the civil society and with other UN entities and international organizations across the world.
About Covestro:
With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2017.
For more information, please contact:
Keith Weller, Head of News and Media, keith.weller@un.org
2014 UN Environment Champion of the Earth Fatima Jibrell once said: “People are fighting about limited resources, destroyed by displaced youth: a ready pool for hire for war lords, companies of charcoal; for piracy and for every other evil thing that they could find.”
It is up to us to come together and find constructive employment for our young people, she said. “We don’t want to be dependent on aid.” This week she was among experts gathering in Mogadishu this week for the first Somali Government-led conference, continuing the fight to stop the illegal charcoal trade and prevent charcoal production.
The conference from May 7-8 took place as deforestation, soil erosion and drought continue to grip the country. The high-level meeting brought together government officials, senior UN representatives, environmental advocates and donors to support implementation of the ban on importing Somali charcoal.
Throughout her career, Fatima Jibrell has challenged the status quo to protect ordinary Somalis and their way of life, while working to end the unsustainable charcoal trade. Born into a nomadic pastoralist family in Somalia, she is focused on her vision of peace and conservation. A leading environmental activist and founder of Adeso Africa – a non-profit organization established in 1991 – she has fought bravely to protect Somalia’s fragile environment.
Instrumental in bringing about a ban on the export of charcoal in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, she has also co-funded Sun Fire Cooking, which promotes widespread use of solar cookers as an alternative to charcoal. In 2002 her work won her the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize and in 2007, the National Geographic/Buffet Award for Leadership in African Conservation.
Exporting charcoal from Somalia was banned in 2012, but an illicit trade has decimated ancient acacia tree populations across the country. Since ordinary Somalis are often not aware of the long-term consequences of deforestation and desertification, they become perpetrators of their environment’s own demise, with harsh economic and social repercussions.
Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled said in his opening remarks: “We need a holistic response to address the issues of charcoal in Somalia. Both the demand and supply side have to be tackled – to do this we need cooperation to implement the UN Security Council Resolution and ensure the environmental, economic and human losses that happen because of illegal charcoal trade are curbed.”
Erik Solheim, UN Environment’s Executive Director, said: “Destruction of trees for charcoal leads to degradation of land, destruction of ecosystems and causes greater susceptibility to flooding and drought. This leads to loss of livelihoods and food insecurity, which are contributing to the humanitarian crises in Somalia.
“The charcoal trade contributes to and funds insecurity and conflict as it exacerbates inter-clan tension over control of land and trade and acts as a major source of funding for armed groups which illegally tax exports of the commodity. Somalia needs the support of the international community and the private sector to curb this unsustainable livelihood and to provide viable alternatives,” he added.
Charcoal production – an economic activity that dates to pre-colonial times – has long served communities to meet energy requirements and provide livelihood opportunities. The market value of the exported commodity was estimated to be more than $250 million dollars over two years following the ban.
“The environmental destruction brought on by the charcoal trade contributes to drought, flooding, the loss of livelihoods and increase in food insecurity. Together with conflict, this exacerbates the humanitarian situation in Somalia,” said the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, Peter de Clercq.
Consequently, the trade in charcoal has accelerated environmental degradation and conflict over the control of resultant revenue. Fatima Jibrell will join delegates to strengthen institutional support to ensure the ban is finally upheld.
The two-day conference was supported by the UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Environment and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with funding from the European Union, Sweden and Italy.
Learn more about UN Environment’s work on the environmental causes and consequences of disasters and conflicts.
More information about UN Environment’s Young Champion’s work is available here
Contact Russel Galt (Coordinator of the Champions of the Earth) russel.galt[at]un.org or Saidou Hamani saidou.hamani[at]un.org (Regional Coordinator of the Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Programme Africa Office)
Urban green spaces encourage active and healthy lifestyles, improve mental health, prevent disease, and provide a place for people to socialize. And especially when they feature native greenery, they can improve a city’s resilience. Planting native trees and shrubs in urban spaces can help cities to adapt to the impacts of climate change by bringing down temperatures, buffering storms and floods, and working as excellent air filters.
Biologist Liliana Jaramillo Pazmiño – one of six Young Champions of the Earth in 2017 – is cultivating native trees and shrubs to grow on rooftops in Quito, Ecuador. Her ultimate aim is for these corners of greenery to become part of the city’s infrastructure.
“When you think about urban cities, most of the time you think about concrete. But rooftops are basically wasted space – leftover land,” she says. “It’s time we started converting these spaces into greener spaces for everybody to enjoy.”
“In Quito and in most cities, this means including eco-friendly approaches to urban development and planning. Planting trees in rooftop spaces requires designing buildings with stronger infrastructure to cope with extra weight, for example. If this isn’t tailored into building design, it can be too expensive to do after construction.”
“Even when we do incorporate trees or green areas into urban construction, these often focus on exotic species, which are not native to our land. Reintroducing native species inside the city is important for so many reasons. They help our ecosystem become more diverse, attracting native birds and species to our city spaces.”
“Bringing native trees and shrubs into the city also helps protect them from disappearing, and connects us to nature and our heritage. Part of my project is about creating awareness about which greenery is native, so people can choose local, native species over exotic species and we can feel more connected to our cultural roots, and connect with green spaces outside the city.”
“During the process of urbanization, many of our native species have been disappearing, but we still don’t have a good record of what has been lost. Multiplying and selling them on a wide scale throughout the city is my goal, so that people can easily find them for their rooftops.”
“Bringing native greenery into our urban infrastructure can help us adapt to changing climatic conditions, so that our cities are more resilient to drought, flooding or higher temperatures. We can learn lessons from other cities where this is already being applied.”
21 March is the International Day of Forests. The theme for 2018 is Forests and Sustainable Cities.
Applications for 2018 Young Champions of the Earth are open until 2 April. Apply now!
