UNEP Champions and Young Champions of the Earth take home another environmental prize

Next month, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will announce the award of the United Nations’ top environmental honour to the 2021 Champions of the Earth.

But before the 2021 Champions are unveiled, three past winners took centre stage in Glasgow at COP 26.

Vidyut Mohan, Gator Halpern and the state of Costa Rica have won the inaugural Earthshot Prize from the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which was supported in part by UNEP through the Global Alliance.

With 750 nominations received from around the world, through a prestigious crop of nominators including UNEP, an expert advisory panel selected 15 finalists from 14 countries. Three of the five winners selected in the inaugural group for the £1 million prize to continue their work were former UNEP Champions and Young Champions.

“It gives UNEP great pride to see past winners of the Champions and Young Champions of the Earth award recognized yet again for their commitment to creating a greener, more sustainable future,” UNEP Deputy Director Joyce Msuya said. “Their commitment to addressing environmental challenges through innovation is inspiring others to be environmental changemakers in their own communities.”

Vidyut Mohan was included among the 2020 Young Champions for his company Takachar. Since 2018, the firm has bought rice husks, straw and coconut shells from over 4,500 farmers in a social enterprise that encourages farmers to limit open burning of their waste farm residue and earn extra income by converting that residue into value-added products. The on-site conversion process means that farmers can transform waste into chemicals like activated carbon, charcoal and fertilizer.

Halpern, a Young Champion from 2018, represented Latin America. As the co-founder of Coral Vita, Halpern opened the world’s first land-based commercial coral farm seeking to restore the dying coral reefs that sustain marine life and serve as a filter for the world’s oceans. Coral Vita is using cutting-edge micro-fragmenting technology, which accelerates coral growth by 50 times their normal rates, speeding up reef restoration over months instead of decades.

Costa Rica, which took home a Champion of the Earth award for Policy Leadership in 2019, was honoured by the Earthshot committee for its commitment to protecting nature and demonstrating that environmentalism and economic development can go hand-in-hand. More than 95 percent of Costa Rica’s energy is renewable, and the Central American country has also reversed decades of deforestation.

UNEP’s 2021 Champions of the Earth will be announced in December. As in years past, the rigorous selection process for this year’s winners was done by a panel of environmental experts. Each of the nominees was expected to demonstrate through their work that collective action is the only way we can meet the multiplying threats to the planet, including climate change, pollution and species loss.

Since their inception in 2005, the annual awards have honoured the world’s most dynamic environmental leaders, from pioneering scientists to community activists to heads of state.

In announcing the call for nominations in January 2021, UNEP echoed a warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres that humanity is waging war against nature. “Without bold action, ecosystems will erode, air and water pollution will continue to cripple human health, and millions of species risk extinction,” he said.

“The worsening impacts of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste can no longer be ignored,” said Msuya. “That’s why the Champions of the Earth are so important. They show us that a better way, a more sustainable way, is possible.”

The UN Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth and the Young Champions of the Earth honour individuals, groups and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment. Handed out annually, the Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour. The laureates will be announced in December 2021.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration. Visit www.decadeonrestoration.org to learn more.