MADRID, Spain 9 December 2019 – Deputy Speaker and Lone District of Antique Representative Loren Legarda, together with fellow jurors, announced the winners of the very first Green Climate Fund (GCF) Green Champions Awards, in recognition of individuals and organizations that are driving transformations to combat climate change, as well as promote initiatives that set as examples of environmental, social, and business-led commitments on climate action.

The event took place on December 6, at the sidelines of the 25th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Spain, where Legarda also serves as Head of the Philippine Delegation.

The winners of the GCF Green Champions Awards are as follows:

• Climate Youth Champion: Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti (Kenya) – Founder of the Green Generation Initiative, Elizabeth is a passionate environmentalist with experience in climate change issues and wildlife and forest conservation. She works towards youth involvement in global environmental challenges and raise their awareness towards collective action to face climate change. Through her work, she nurtures children and promotes “love nature” by greening schools, planting fruit trees for food security, and inculcating a tree growing culture among people for forest cover increment through an adopt a tree campaign. 

• Climate Entrepreneur Champion: Muhammed Lubowa (Uganda) – Muhammed is a renewable energy entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Managing Director of All In Trade Limited, a Ugandan company dealing in provision and maintenance of reliable and affordable solar energy systems, wind energy systems, and other renewable energy solutions for Uganda and the neighboring East African Countries. All In Trade creates awareness of clean energy through active Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs from constructing underground solar-powered boreholes, in-house solar lighting, solar water heating, and solar street lighting systems to schools and worship centers in rural communities of Uganda.

• Climate Transformational Country Champion: Wills Agricole (Seychelles) – The Ministry of Environment Energy and Climate Change (MEE&CC) in Seychelles develops shareholder mechanism to support initiatives, such as the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA+), ecosystem-based adaptation through South-South Cooperation. The MEE&CC addresses priority areas for climate action with proposals that demonstrate dynamic, scalable, replicable, transformative orientation, which are urgently needed for Seychelles and the world. Will, with his four decades of experience in Meteorology and Climate Change Negotiations, aims to gradually reduce Seychelles’ dependence on fossil fuel by promoting renewable energy use and energy efficiency.

• Climate Gender Champion: Trupti Jain (India) – Trupti is a gender activist who developed Women Climate Leaders (WCL) programme that aims to provide women smallholder farmers with the technical and financial skills to offer fee-based services to other smallholder farmers in their community. Over the next years, the programme is expected to transform the lives of hundreds and thousands of rural poor, helping them access food security and boost their income. Her actions significantly contribute to making women smallholders around the world resilient to the adverse effects of climate change.

• Climate Community Champion: Red Argentina de Municipios Frente al Cambio Climatico (RAMCC) (Argentina) – The RAMCC is an instrument for the coordination and promotion of local public policies fighting climate change in Argentina’s cities and towns. It created the first municipalities’ trust fund to promote climate action, which is a vehicle that allows the RAMCC to gain the support and transparency needed to promote investment at a subnational level.

• Climate Lifetime Achievement Champion: Francisco Gordillo (Ecuador) – An Ecuadorian researcher who focuses his efforts combating river pollution, especially in the binational basins of Ecuador and Peru. As the Technical Secretary of the Regional Water Fund, FORAGUA, he has spirited the creation of new water funds across the country and across the national borders. Francisco believes in the importance of sharing the lessons learned from his experiences and those who fight the good fight to keep rivers clean, through actively promoting exchange programs, and further raising awareness of the issue. He established a Water Conservation School that seeks to support in training municipal officials about water conservation.

Legarda presented the awards for Climate Gender Champion and Transformational Country Champion. 

Legarda is among the high-level members of the jury, which also include UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa; Former President of Chile Ricardo Lagos; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Vice Chairperson Youba Sokana; Ms. Claudia Dobles Camargo, First Lady of Costa Rica; and UNFCCC Youth Representative Mary Jane Enchill.

Legarda is a UNEP Laureate, UNISDR Global Champion for Resilience, UNFCCC National Adaptation Plan Champion, and Member of the Governing Board to the GCF.

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The public is invited to monitor events of COP25 and of Deputy Speaker Legarda through the following channels:

• Website – lorenlegarda.com.ph

• Facebook – facebook.com/conglorenlegarda

• Twitter – twitter.com/loren_legarda

• Instagram – instagram.com/iamlorenlegarda