Despite repeated warnings and unassailable scientific evidence on the climate consequences of the brown economy, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Some prefer to assign blame to the failure of international treaties to curb emissions, yet there is so much that can be done by simple changes to the way we design and run our homes and places of work and leisure. This is why the work of the US Green Building Council (USGBC), a private not-for-profit organization that is transforming buildings across the globe, is so crucial.
The USGBC has produced outstanding results in sustainable building through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which is currently the most widely used green building program worldwide. In the United States alone, buildings account for 40 per cent of energy use and incur losses of S$130 billion annually from inefficient design. Worldwide, one third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings; LEED is zeroing in on reducing this astonishing figure.
In little over two decades, the USGBC has gone from its first meeting in the boardroom of the American Institute of Architects, with 60 firms and a few not-for-profit organizations, to 76 chapters, nearly 13,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 198,000 LEED certified professionals. LEED is certifying 1.7 million square feet of building space daily in 150 countries and territories – the equivalent of about 45 football fields.
The USBGC also lobbies policymakers to implement greener building design, and is convinced that greater building efficiency can meet 85 per cent of future demand for energy in the United States alone. It supported the introduction of the Better Buildings Act of 2014 into the United States House of Representatives—a bill that would amend federal law aimed at improving the energy efficiency of commercial office buildings. It was one of eight national councils that helped found the World Green Building Council.
For climate change to one day be consigned to the dustbin of history as a challenge humanity faced and overcame, organizations and individuals need to play their part to change how we live our lives in support of top-down change. The USBGC demonstrates clearly that such change is eminently possible.
For outstanding courage in fighting the illegal wildlife trade at community level
The Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit is a majority women group of rangers, founded by Transfrontier Africa to protect the Olifants West Region of Balule Nature Reserve, part of Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa. The area where the Black Mambas operate is a free-range savannah ecosystem with open borders to the Kruger National Park. The highly endangered Black Rhino and also the endangered white rhino are strongly represented in the area.
Since the unit went into operation in 2013, the number of rhinos lost to poaching has plummeted, snaring and illegal bush-meat incidents have been reduced by 75 per cent, and nine poacher incursions have been detected, leading to the arrests of the offenders. The 26 unarmed members of the unit conduct foot-patrols, observations, vehicle checks and, road blocks, as well as educating their peers on the importance of conservation and gathering intelligence from their communities.
Restoring dignity and self-worth, and empowering communities to play their part, is a crucial component of efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade across the globe, and the Black Mambas are an outstanding example of success. Their brave actions are sending the message to others in South Africa and beyond that communities themselves can prevent the illegal wildlife trade—which threatens not only iconic species such as rhino and elephants, but puts money in the hands of criminal gangs, thus increasing insecurity, and threatens livelihoods.
President of France, Emmanuel Macron has put climate action at the top of his foreign agenda. He is recognized for championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting international cooperation on environmental action, and for his leadership on the Global Pact for the Environment.
Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are joint winners of the Champions of the Earth Award, in the Science and Innovation category. They produce a sustainable alternative to beef burgers that are more environmentally friendly and rival the taste of meat. These winners believe that there is no pathway to achieve the Paris climate objectives without a massive decrease in the scale of animal agriculture. They are taking steps for the global community to eliminate the need for animals in the food system by shifting to plant-based meat.
Joan Carling has been defending land and environmental rights of indigenous peoples for more than 20 years. She actively participated in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and REDD+, twice served as Secretary-General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and was Chairperson of the Cordillera People’s Alliance. She was appointed by the UN Economic and Social Council as an indigenous expert and has been a member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, among other responsibilities.
UN Environment Programme has recognized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his bold environmental leadership on the global stage. Under Modi’s leadership, India pledged to eliminate all single-use plastics in the country by 2022. Prime Minister Modi also supports and champions the International Solar Alliance, a global partnership to scale up solar energy.
Zhejiang province derives its name from the Zhe River, meaning “crooked” or “bent” river. The rivers of Zhejiang Province have long been vital for communities, flowing through ancient towns, among traditional white-walled and black-roofed houses, feeding fertile rice fields. Yet Zhejiang is also one of the richest and most developed provinces in China, and rapid development turned waters black. Action was taken through a range of initiatives – including the nomination of river chiefs to take charge of the waters – to revive the environment across the province.
José Sarukhán Kermez has spent a lifetime not just leading students, fellow researchers and politicians to a greater understanding of biological diversity and its value – he has pioneered ways to translate that insight into action.
Sarukhán, 76, persuaded the Mexican government to establish a permanent top-level commission on biodiversity. The commission has bridged the traditional barriers between academic disciplines, government departments and social interest groups.
That was back in 1992, when the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio was crystallizing concern that our global development track was unsustainable. Today, the approach developed by Sarukhán is essential for the world to correct its course.
As a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one of Mexico’s best, Sarukhán rose to become Director of the Institute of Biology in 1979 and later served as its Coordinator of Scientific Research. He was rector of the university from 1989 until 1997, and remains one of Mexico’s most renowned scientists.
His academic work in areas including ecology, biodiversity and Darwinism has won numerous awards, and he has published more than 190 scientific works as well as several books on subjects including natural capital and climate change.
But his most enduring innovation was his call in 1991 for the establishment of the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, better known as CONABIO. Sarukhán was named as its first national coordinator, a position he still holds.
The commission pools knowledge from across Mexico’s institutions and society to build a fuller understanding of the diversity of life and its immense value to humankind. Crucially, it ensures that the protection of biodiversity is considered at all levels of government policy and practice.
With strong political support – the Mexican president is also president of CONABIO – and an array of national and international donors, CONABIO produces and collates biodiversity data and assessments across Mexico's varied ecosystems and makes them available to policy-makers and the public.
It also administers or guides a range of biological conservation and sustainability projects in Mexico and the region, and cooperates on biodiversity protection at the international level, including through the Convention on Biological Diversity established at the Earth Summit.
Sarukhán has received considerable recognition within Mexico and internationally, including honorary doctorates from 10 national and foreign universities.
Masen, the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy, spearheads the first large-scale capture of solar energy in the Middle East and North Africa, a bold initiative to make solar power affordable and reduce the country’s dependence on high-carbon imports.
The first phase of the Moroccan Solar Plan NOOR, the NOOR Ouarzazate I, a 160 MW concentrated solar power plant, came online early this year. When complete, it will be one of the biggest facilities of its kind in the world. It will reduce the country’s fossil fuel dependence by about 2.5 million tons of oil a year, and could eventually export renewable energy to neighbouring countries.
Masen was created in 2010 to coordinate the solar development strategy of the country’s renewable energy plan, alongside the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water.
The Kingdom of Morocco has traditionally been the largest importer of fossil fuels in the region - depending on foreign sources for over 97 per cent of its energy - and Masen is instrumental in helping to turn that around.
Masen leads projects aimed at creating an additional 3,000 MW of clean electricity generation capacity by 2020, and a further 6,000 MW thereafter. The overarching national goal is to secure 52 per cent of the country’s energy mix from renewable sources by 2030.
The first NOOR project is under construction in one of Morocco’s most disadvantaged regions, creating thousands of jobs and providing training and community development programmes for the region’s inhabitants, as well as indirect employment and other benefits.
Masen aims to share its best practices in order to boost the development of renewable energy in countries that have the potential, but not yet the ability, to harness the power of the sun.
Afroz Shah, a young Indian lawyer from Mumbai, is synonymous with the world’s largest beach clean-up project.
In October 2015, Shah and his neighbor Harbansh Mathur, an 84-year-old who has since passed away, were frustrated with the piles of decomposing waste that had washed up and completely overwhelmed the city’s Versova beach. Determined to do something about it, the pair started cleaning up the beach themselves, one piece of rubbish at a time.
Every weekend since, Shah has inspired volunteers to join him – from slum-dwellers to Bollywood stars, from schoolchildren to politicians. They have been turning up at Versova for what Shah calls "a date with the ocean", but what in reality means labouring shin-deep in rotting garbage under the scorching Indian sun.
So far, the volunteers have collected over 4,000 tons of trash from the 2.5 kilometre beach.
Shah, who rallied residents and fisherfolk by knocking on doors and explaining the damage marine litter causes, now plans to expand his group’s operation to prevent litter from washing down the local creek and onto the beach. He also wants to clean-up the coastline’s rubbish-choked mangrove forests, which act as a natural defense against storm surges, and to inspire similar groups across India and beyond to launch their own clean-up movements.
Shah is deservedly proud of the Versova residents' accomplishments. Not only has the movement brought marine little to the attention of decision-makers, it is also starting to win back the beach, with decreasing amounts of new litter appearing each month.
He vows to continue his beach clean-up crusade until people and their governments around the world change their approach to producing, using and discarding plastic and other products that wash up onto beaches all over the world.
