Joydeep Gupta, Thaindian News 22 Apr 08;
Singapore, April 22 (IANS) Formula One racing will now take into account its effect on climate change, Prince Albert II of Monaco announced here Tuesday while receiving a prize from the UN Environment Programme as one of the seven Champions of the Earth 2008. Prince Albert II, whose little country hosts one of the famous races on the F1 circuit, has in recent years supported over 60 projects globally to tackle climate change and improve the environment. The greening of the F1 is his next big project, he promised.
The awards were presented on Earth Day, which also saw the opening of the two-day B4E (Business for the Environment) summit here, being attended by over 500 business leaders from more than 30 countries.
Balgis Osman-Elasha from Sudan, one of the award winners, said: “From being a normal person doing my routine work, I’ll now have to become an example to others. It’s a scary thing.”
Osman-Elasha, who has carried out ecological projects in the troubled region of Darfur, said that areas where traditional water harvesting and farming methods were still practised were less drought-prone than others in the region.
“The conflict destroyed our project,” she told IANS. “And it was the drought, caused by a worsening environment, that created the conflict.”
Atiq Rahman, who returned from a teaching job in Britain to set up a centre for sustainable development in his native Bangladesh over 20 years ago, said: “it’s a nice feeling to get credit after so many years.
“We’ve learnt about sustainable living from fishermen, farmers, illiterate mothers,” he added. “Now, with climate change, we can see that large decisions made by global systems can hurt poor persons very directly. This award will help me combat that.”
Liz Thompson, former environment minister of Barbados and another award winner, said she would use her new fame to “strive for better South-South cooperation, so that best practices are better known”.
Talking about the impact of climate change in her country, Thompson said: “I can see the erosion on the coastline every day (due to rising sea level, one of the effects of global warming). The marine habitat is already being affected. That affects tourism, which in turn affects the entire economy.”
“Climate change represents a very real threat to the daily lives of our people.”
Other award winners were former prime minister of Yemen Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal, Senator Timothy E. Wirth of the US and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
U.N. gives Monaco prince, New Zealand PM green award
Melanie Lee and Neil Chatterjee, Reuters 22 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United Nations honored Monaco's Prince Albert II and New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark on Tuesday for driving policies to tackle climate change.
The pair were among the seven winners in the annual U.N. Champions of the Earth awards.
Prince Albert, who won the award for Europe for setting up an environmental foundation, said countries had to push their economies towards energy efficiency.
"We can't go on as business as usual. Those who haven't realized that yet will be sorry in a few years," the prince said at a news conference.
The U.N., leading talks to find a climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, wants to highlight lifetimes dedicated to the environment with the awards, in their third year. Previous winners include former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
Clark, who did not attend a gala dinner in Singapore where winners received a trophy made of recycled metal, won for her goal to make New Zealand use 90 percent renewable energy by 2025.
Emissions from fossil fuels are blamed for climate change.
Atiq Rahman, the director of a sustainability think tank in Bangladesh and the winner for Asia, said climate change was behind soaring food prices that have sparked fears in the region over food security.
"This erratic behavior -- climate variability -- will accentuate the extremes. This will bring out instability in the food system and will be reflected in the market," he said.
World rice prices have surged as stocks have hit their lowest level in decades, prompting India and Vietnam to curb exports.
Other winners included former U.S. Senator Timothy Wirth for efforts to garner support in the United States for greater action on emission cuts and former Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal for advocating better management of water resources.
Sudan's Balgis Osman-Elasha won for her research into how communities in conflict-stricken Darfur cope with drought.
"We want to focus the attention of the policymakers on the underlying reasons to the conflict, which is climate change," Osman-Elasha told Reuters.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
