UNEP Sasakawa Prize Award Ceremony: Winners Announced 23 February

Theme: Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change
Each year the UNEP Sasakawa Prize honors a deserving laureate in the sustainable development field. Aside from the prestigious title, the winning laureate also receives a cash prize of $200,000 to enable the growth and replication of their groundbreaking initiatives. With a different theme each year, the Prize highlights sustainable and replicable work being done around the world. In a year that saw global leaders meet in Copenhagen for the crucial climate conference, the UNEP Sasakawa Prize accepted nominations within the theme: Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change.

Projects that promote adaptation and mitigation through clean energy and clean technologies, including waste reduction, management and recycling; rural energy, including renewables and sustainable biomass; ecosystem management to help build adaptive capacity and resilience to the inevitable impacts of climate change are some of the areas of work that were accepted for the Prize.

Nominees were advised that these projects should already be in implementation and preferably benefiting developing economies, particularly the rural communities.

Nominations for the 2009-10 UNEP Sasakawa Prize are now closed.