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
