Young trailblazer innovators awarded for bold sustainability ideas by 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.

Winners, hailing from different regions around the world, receive seed funding, mentoring and communications support to amplify their efforts.

The prize is the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) leading initiative to engage youth in tackling the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Since its inception in 2017, 28 environmental trailblazers have been recognised from every corner of the globe.

“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.

“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, starting where we are with what we have. Every single act for nature counts, and we need the entire spectrum of humanity to share this global responsibility and this profound opportunity.”

The seven prize winners, all 30 years old or younger, were selected by a global jury of experts following a competitive public nomination.

There, she began creating and testing pavers, which are a combination of plastic and sand.

Matee encourages other young people to tackle environmental challenges at the local level.

“The negative impact we are having on the environment is huge,” said Matee. “It’s up to us to make this reality better. Start with whatever local solution you can find and be consistent with it. The results will be amazing.”

Since its launch in 2015, MyH2O has helped provide clean water to tens of thousands of villagers, an accomplishment that saw Ren recently named a Young Champion of the Earth.

Indian engineer, Vidyut Mohan, who grew up in Delhi, is the co-founder of Takachar. The company buys rice husks, straw and coconut shells from farmers and turns them into charcoal, saving the debris from the fires, which are also a driver of climate change.

Mohan and co-founder Kevin Kung launched their venture in 2018, where they have worked with about 4,500 farmers and processed 3,000 tonnes of crops. Those efforts were recently recognized by becoming one of the winners of this year's award.

“I’ve always been passionate about energy access and creating income opportunities for poor communities,” said Mohan. “(That) is at the heart of finding answers to the difficult question of balancing economic growth and climate change mitigation in developing countries.”

Nature in itself is incredible. There is so much we can learn by observing it.”

“There are communities that have been waiting for water for 20 years and rely on trucks that come in with expensive water of questionable quality,” he said.

The Yawa technology, developed by Hidalgo, is an example of best practice in the circular economy.

Materials used to build the turbine are recyclable and there is minimal plastic in the device.

The simple-to-use technology is even being modified to adapt to local air quality, a response to the challenges wrought by air pollution.

But most importantly, the technology is something that can be used, owned and repaired by the communities it serves, even if they are no experts.

Other outstanding projects that received the honour of becoming Young Champions of the Earth in 2020 are:

• North America: Niria Alicia Garcia (USA, 28), coordinates - alongside a community of indigenous activists - the annual Run 4 Salmon event using virtual reality to bring to life the historical journey of the Sacramento chinook salmon along California’s largest watershed, raising awareness of this invaluable ecosystem, the species and people it supports.

• West Asia: Fatemah Alzelzela (Kuwait, 24) started Eco Star, a non-profit recycling initiative that exchanges trees and plants for waste from homes, schools and businesses in Kuwait. Since launching in early 2019, Eco Star has recycled over 130 tonnes of metal, paper and plastic.

• Europe: Lefteris Arapakis (Greece, 26 years) founded the start-up Enaleia, through which the team trains, empowers and incentivises the local fishing community to collect plastic from the sea, allowing both fish stocks and the ecosystem to recover. Enaleia is also prototyping recycling the plastic into fashion merchandise like socks and swimsuits.