UNEP Unveils Young Champions of the Earth

UNEP Unveils Young Ch

AN ENGINEER WHO TURNS plastic rubbish into paving stones. An activist who is fi ghting 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).

Drawn from seven regions around the world, these under-30 activists were heralded for their commitment to tackling some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems.

“Globally, young people are leading the way in calling for meaningful and immediate solutions to the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – we must listen,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.

This year’s Young Champions are Nzambi Matee (Kenya), Xiaoyuan Ren (China), Vidyut Mohan (India), Lefteris Arapakis (Greece), Max Hidalgo Quinto (Peru), Niria Alicia Garcia (United States of America) and Fatemah Alzelzela (Kuwait).

Each will receive US$10,000 in seed funding and tailored training to help scale up their ideas.

Many of those are groundbreaking – and the result of years of personal sacrifi ce. Matee, a materials engineer, quit her job and spent her life savings developing a system to turn discarded plastic into inexpensive paving stones. Garcia has devoted years working to save the Chinook salmon, whose numbers have long been in retreat in the American West. And Hidalgo worked with indigenous villages across Peru to develop a wind turbine that can siphon water from the air, an invention heralded as a lifeline for drought-prone communities.

“As we enter this decisive decade where we work to cut emissions and protect and restore ecosystems, UNEP Young Champions demonstrate that all of us can contribute,” said Andersen. “Every single act for nature counts, and we need the entire spectrum of humanity to share this global responsibility and this profound opportunity.”

The Young Champions of the Earth prize – part of UNEP’s #ForNature campaign – aims to inspire more young people to become stewards of the environment. With pollution, species loss and climate change all accelerating, that is considered crucial to the future of the planet.

The seven prize winners were selected by a global jury of experts following a public nomination process.

Nzambi Matee

hampions of the Earth

Their elevation follows the announcement earlier this week of the 2020 Champions of the Earth, the UN’s highest environmental honour, awarded to seasoned environmental leaders whose actions are having a transformative impact on the environment.

Nairobi Woman Brilliantly Recycles Plastic Waste into Paver Bricks that are Stronger than Concrete

MATERIALS ENGINEER AND

ENTREPRENEUR Nzambi Matee is the founder Gjenge Makers (https://gjenge.co.ke), an environmentally-conscious start-up company in Nairobi, Kenya that makes alternative

building materials and products made from

plastic waste. One such product is a supersturdy plastic paver brick that is stronger than concrete and comes in a range of colors for home construction projects.

Matee told UNEP that there is a lot of potential in recycled plastic that is still yet unexplored.

It is absurd that we still have this problem of providing decent shelter – a basic human need. …Plastic is a material that is misused and misunderstood. The potential is enormous, but it’s after life can be disastrous.

Matee has also won prestigious recognition for her idea.

For her work, Matee was recently named a

Young Champion of the Earth by the United

Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award provides seed funding and mentorship to promising environmentalists as they tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/unep-unveilsyoung-champions-earth https://laughingsquid.com/woman-recycles-plasticwaste-into-strong-bricks/ www.unenvironment.org/championsofearth Image credits: Gjenge Makers