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On 26 September, UN Environment awarded the 2018 Champions and Young Champions of the Earth Awards. Two of the Young Champions, Miranda Wang and Miao Wang, are intervening to prevent marine plastic pollution at different points.

Miranda has invented a way of turning unrecyclable plastic waste into chemicals to build new materials. She focuses on removing plastic from waste before it even reaches the ocean.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, are recognized in the Policy Leadership category for their pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action, including Macron’s work on the Global Pact for the Environment and Modi’s unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022.

In a move hailed by campaigners as a critical step for ocean conservation, Britain will call on global leaders at the United Nations to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030, a trebling of the current target.

Namatakula is a small village in Fiji found on a long stretch of the country’s most beautiful coastline: the Coral Coast. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock from around the world to this 80 kilometre stretch of white sand and turquoise water.

Gator Halpern is the 2018 Young Champion of the Earth for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Young Champions of the Earth Prize is powered by Covestro.

Miao Wang is one of two Young Champions of the Earth for Asia and the Pacific. The Young Champions of the Earth Prize is powered by Covestro.

Marine plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. This fall, UN Environment, together with the animation studio Kurzgesagt, is challenging schools and youth groups worldwide to be part of the solution and join our “Back to School Plastic Challenge”.

Ben Morison’s epiphany came early one morning as he set out for a swim on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. The Kenyan tour operator counted 13 pieces of plastic, including bottles and flip flops, as he walked to the sea. With a jolt, he realized how degraded the coastline he loved – and marketed as a dream destination – had become. He had to act.

Lamu, Kenya 15 September 2018 – Amid the rising momentum to beat plastic pollution globally, Kenya will today see the launch of the world’s first 100% recycled marine plastic boat into the Indian Ocean. The project, aptly named the FlipFlopi, used thousands of repurposed flip-flops and ocean plastic collected on beach clean-ups along the Kenyan coast for the construction of the prototype.

Cloud computing technology can speed up the assessment of Northwest Pacific seagrass beds which nurture biodiversity, purify seawater and mitigate climate change but are threatened by human activities and natural disasters, says a study by the UN Environment Regional Seas Programme in the region.

Bangkok, 10 September 2018 –Sweden, UN Environment and the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) today announced efforts to combat marine litter and plastic pollution in Southeast Asia over the coming four years, through a project that aims to ensure that less plastic leaks through waste management systems.

Champions of the Earth laureate Boyan Slat and his Ocean Cleanup team launched their revolutionary marine litter cleanup system today. Research shows that a scaled-up fleet of 60 systems could eventually clean up 50% of the Patch in the next 5 years.

San Francisco, 8 September 2018 – UN Environment Champion of the Earth Boyan Slat and his Ocean Cleanu

Florida in the United States of America recently declared a state of emergency as a red tide of toxic algae bloomed along its western coastline killing marine animals, disrupting tourism and causing respiratory problems.