Inaugural Climate and Clean Air Awards shortlist
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A shortlist of 14 nominees for the inaugural Climate and Clean Air Awards was announced today in recognition of the exceptional contributions and actions they’ve taken to implement projects, programmes, policies and practices that reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) – black carbon, methane, hydrofluorocarbons and tropospheric ozone.
Reducing these dangerous air and climate pollutants is key to improving air quality, slowing the rate of climate change and provides multiple benefits for health, ecosystems and the sustainable development goals.
The Climate and Clean Air Awards were developed to recognize and encourage leadership and progress to reduce emissions of these pollutants and to motivate others to take action.
The award is global in scope and the nominees cover a wide range of activities and actions from individual efforts to transform a polluting sector to national policy that is transforming attitudes, sparking innovation, and providing business opportunities. As a collective, this group of nominees show what real climate action looks like.
Awards will be presented in four categories:
- Individual Achievement: recognizes the efforts by an individual to reduce short-lived climate pollutants.
- Outstanding Policy: recognizes air quality improvement and SLCP reduction policies (and their implementation) that are bold and transformative.
- Innovative Technology: recognizes technological interventions to reduce air pollution and protect the climate that are ground-breaking, accessible and scalable.
- Transformative Action: recognizes an action or activity that has fundamentally changed attitudes, practices, and/or policies related to air pollution and climate change.
An Honorary Award may also be awarded to nominees that are deemed to have considerably contributed to SLCP reduction efforts, awareness, and/or leadership.
Members of the public can vote for a People's Choice Award by clicking here.
The 2017 shortlist
The inaugural Climate and Clean Air Awards attracted a large number of stellar candidates. From these 14 were shortlisted by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Steering Committee for consideration by a panel of four judges.
The shortlisted nominees are:
- Ministry of Environment, Chile
- The State of California, USA
- Mr. Sameer Maithel, India
- The Africompost Project, multiple countries: Africa
- Durban Landfill Conservancies, South Africa
- The Habla Zig-Zag Kiln (HZZK) Technology Transfer Project, Australia
- Öresundskraft (City of Helsingborg) District Cooling Project, Sweden
- Low-Emission and Climate Resilient Dairy Development, Kenya
- Low-Sulfur Diesel Standards, Ghana
- National Plan for Clean Cooking, Cameroon
- Uncovering the Diesel Scandal: International Council on Clean Transportation
- The Arctic Council
- Micro-Financing for Clean Cookstoves, Nexleaf Analytics
- Pilot Auction Facility for Methane, The World Bank
Winner announcement
The awards will be presented at a special side event during COP23 in Bonn, Germany. The event will take place from 16:45 to 18:15, on November 12, 2017. The event will give winners the opportunity to showcase their work to delegates and media.
The Jury
A panel of four ditinguished jury member will decide on the winners of the 2017 Climate and Clean Air Award. They are:
- Ms. Annika Markovic, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
- Mr. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, former Minister of State for Environment, Peru, and President of COP 20. He is the current head of WWF's global climate work.
- Dr. Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
- Mr. Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary for Sustainable Development a t the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
About short-lived climate pollutants
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition works to reduce four short-lived climate pollutants: black carbon (or soot), methane, tropospheric (or ground level) ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). These pollutants are powerful climate forcers many times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Some, like black carbon and ozone, also have serious immediate impacts to human health and food security.
The four SLCPs contribute about 40% of the manmade heat energy being added to the planet every year. Reducing emissions of methane, black carbon, and HFCs can help reduce predicted global warming by as much as 0.6 degrees Celsius (⁰C) by 2050, helping to achieve the global goal to limit warming to 1.5 ⁰C.
Air pollutions is responsible for approximately 6.5 million premature deaths every year and the plant growth. Fully implementing the Coalition’s SLCP reduction measures can prevent 2.5 million premature deaths and avoid up to 52 million tonnes of crop losses every year.
The Coalition works on a range of measures across key polluting sectors – diesel, brick production, municipal solid waste, oil and gas production, agriculture, household energy, and HFCs. It also works to improve national planning and capacity through its SNAP initiative, improves the understanding and actions of the health sector, works to finance SLCP mitigation and increases understanding of the impacts of and solutions to SLCP emissions by carrying out regional assessments.
Expert assistance
Our Expert Assistance is a no-cost service that connects you to an extensive network of professionals for consultation and advice on a range of short-lived climate pollution issues and policies.
Experts will provide guidance on technological options, mitigation measures (like those carried out by our initiatives), funding opportunities, application of measurement tools, and policy development.