UN Global Climate Action Awards: Winners Unveiled Today

(Bonn, Germany: 6 October 2021) - The recipients of a special 10th anniversary edition of the United Nations Global Climate Action Awards were announced today, shining a light on innovative examples of what people across the globe are doing to combat climate change ahead of the pivotal UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow later this month.

“This past year, we have seen deadly wildfires and floods in many parts of the world,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa. “The report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August rang the alarm bells, showing that the world is warming faster than scientists previously thought. And the new synthesis report of national climate action plans (NDCs) released recently confirmed that unfortunately we are moving in the wrong direction. We urgently require solutions and actions from everyone: public and private sectors, civil society, academia, investors, cities and regions, etc. The winners of the 2021 UN Global Climate Action Awards provide tangible proof that solutions to tackle the climate crisis exist and that they can be replicated and quickly scaled up. This is what inspiring leadership looks like.”

This year’s award-winning projects demonstrate leadership on climate change by nations, businesses, investors, cities, regions and civil society as a whole. They range from the world’s first renewable island community in Denmark to the leading debt-financing provider for distributed solar energy in Africa to a London-based fashion house focused on environmentally, ethically and socially conscious style for a sustainable future. Other winning activities include a UK crowdfunding platform enabling people to support home solar in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Mexico’s first metropolitan-level climate action plan.

The annual award programme, run by United Nations Climate Change since 2011, recognizes the world’s most innovative, scalable and replicable examples of action to tackle climate change. The projects are recognized as solutions that not only address climate change, but also help drive forward progress on many other sustainable development goals, for example, innovation, gender equality and economic opportunity.

A special new award category called ‘Climate Leaders’ was added for 2021. It recognizes transformational and replicable government action at any level (national, regional, city, community, etc.).

Today’s announcement is part of the wider effort to mobilize action and ambition ahead of the critical UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) taking place at the end of this month in Glasgow, Scotland.

The 2021 winners of the UN Global Climate Action Award are:

The 2021 winning activities were selected by UN Climate Change’s international Advisory Panel.

“Everyone has a role to play when it comes to confronting the climate crisis,” said Gabrielle Ginér, Chair of the Advisory Panel. “The recipients of the UN Global Climate Action Awards are stepping up with the kind of bold and courageous leadership we need to see much more of to avoid the ever-worsening impacts of climate change.”

The 11 award-winning projects fall within three focus areas: Climate Neutral Now, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment and Climate Leaders All winning projects will be showcased during a series of special events and an Award Ceremony during the second week of COP 26 in November.

© Scoop Media