![](/themes/custom/youngchampions/img/YCOE_logo.svg"){kind=logo}
News
Showing 1 - 25 of 182
182 results found
At a rural health centre in the Dusti District of Tajikistan, Noemi Florea kneels beside a washstand to install a shiny, chrome-coloured filtration unit. The device, which Florea invented, will collect water that runs down the washstand drain, clean it and pipe it back to the tap. The water is pure enough to drink, making the machine a rarity in a region where water treatment is sporadic.
On Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, local fishers struggle to manoeuvre their boats through mats of floating water hyacinth. The invasive weed spreads as far as the eye can see, blocking sunlight, depleting oxygen, reducing biodiversity and threatening livelihoods.
Once a banana plant fruits, its stem must be cut down for a new plant to grow. Globally, this generates over 100 million tonnes of crop waste each year, according to one study in the journal Molecules. Much of it is discarded in fields, where it decomposes and releases methane, a greenhouse gas over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide over short periods.
As a single parent in her late 30s, Ganga Didi long worried about being able to provide for her child. Barely able to survive on her wages from cleaning office buildings in Kathmandu, she started looking for better opportunities.
As a single parent in her late 30s, Ganga Didi long worried about being able to provide for her child. Barely able to survive on her wages from cleaning office buildings in Kathmandu, she started looking for better opportunities.
One option was to learn to drive a safa tempo, a small three-wheel electric bus that is a common feature of Nepal’s congested capital. In the 1990s, Kathmandu introduced around 700 of these buses as a pollution-busting measure, a move that also helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The recent UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) will go down in history for its historic agreement to end plastic pollution.
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.
Healthy food systems have a positive impact on the natural environment. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is partnering with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to bring youth action to food systems.
In the wake of a global pandemic, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are crucial to economic recovery. Not only do they comprise 90 per cent of businesses, these enterprises are also responsible for more than half of global employment.
Drive through northern India in winter and you'll find a landscape shrouded in smoke. The haze, which at times is so thick it can be seen from space, is the by-product of the widespread burning of crop leftovers across India's sprawling farm belt.
But the smoke is more than an eyesore – it's also hazardous. During the burning season, the air pollution in Delhi, India's capital, is 14 times the safe limit.
That is something Vidyut Mohan is hoping to change.
For many people in rural China, drinking a glass of water is often a roll of the dice. Agricultural runoff and chemical waste from factories have left about 50 per cent of the country’s shallow groundwater polluted, according to some estimates. Every year, tainted water makes millions of people ill around the world, a fact that Xiaoyuan “Charlene” Ren knows all too well.
An engineer who turns plastic rubbish into paving stones. An activist who is fighting to save endangered salmon. And an inventor who developed a machine capable of pulling water out of the air.
These are just some of the winners of the 2020 Young Champions of the Earth prize, announced on 15 December by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Young Champions of the Earth prize is awarded every year to seven entrepreneurs under the age of 30 with bold ideas for sustainable environmental change.
The seven winners, hailing from different regions around the world, receive seed funding, mentoring and communications support to amplify their efforts.
Nzambi Matee’s small workshop in Nairobi, Kenya is chock-a-block with metal pipes and machine cogs.
It may seem chaotic to outsiders but the 29-year-old Matee, an inventor and entrepreneur, is at home here. This is where she developed the prototype for a machine that turns discarded plastic into paving stones – an invention that underpins her company, Gjenge Makers.
Lefteris Arapakis comes from a long line of fishers. For five generations his family has plied the bountiful waters off southern Greece, netting the same cod and red mulls that have sustained Greeks for millennia.
Niria Alicia Garcia is standing on the banks of California’s Sacramento River, holding her phone. It’s mid-summer and the wide, steady waterway is flanked by willow trees, their branches trailing to the ground.
Per capita, Kuwait is among the wealthiest countries in the world. But, despite having the means, it has yet to embrace modern waste management techniques, such as recycling or the sorting of trash before it’s discarded.
When Max Hidalgo was 13 years old, his parents sent him away. Not as a punishment – even though the homesickness was sometimes so intense he could not bear it – but as a gift. Hidalgo was dispatched to school where his parents hoped he’d get a quality education, which was not available in his remote Peruvian village.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres shares his message of support for the 2020 Champions of the Earth, the UN’s highest environmental honour, and Young Champions of the Earth, UNEP's forward looking prize.
The word champion is a powerful one; it can be a noun, or a verb, or even a descriptor of something excellent, someone extraordinary, the best of the best. All three meanings befit the winners of this year’s Champions of the Earth award and the Young Champions of the Earth prize.
31 October is World Cities Day. The theme for 2020 is Valuing Our Communities and Cities.
For the Day, we look back to one of our Young Champions of the Earth from 2017, Latin America and Caribbean winner Liliana Jaramillo.
The United Nations Environment Programme announced today the names of the 35 regional finalists competing for the Young Champions of the Earth prize, the UN’s highest environmental honor for youth.
A global jury will select seven winners, one from each region and two from Asia-Pacific. The winners will be announced in December.
Winners receive US$10,000 in funding as well as tailored support to bring their ideas to life.
Showing 1 - 25 of 182
In partnership with and support from Planet A, a storytelling platform driving environmental awareness and action through @TheOfficialPlanetA YouTube