UAE President honours Zayed Sustainability Prize winners at COP28

President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan honoured 11 winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize at a special ceremony held as part of COP28.

Honouring the legacy of the UAE's Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the award supports small and medium enterprises, non-profit organisations, and secondary schools that design ways to address climate-change challenges.

Sheikh Mohamed congratulated the winners and praised their efforts in promoting sustainability and encouraged them to continue to keep climate at the centre of their future projects.

The 11 winners were selected in September for presenting innovative, impactful, and inspiring solutions across various prize categories, including Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action, and Global High Schools.

For more than 15 years, the award has positively impacted the lives of 384 million people worldwide through the innovative solutions presented by its 106 winners.

Here are the winners:

In Climate Action category, Kelp Blue Namibia was recognised for its ambitious efforts in cultivating extensive seaweed forests in deep waters. The company has contributed to the restoration of ocean biodiversity and the sequestration of 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually, in addition to creating job opportunities in coastal communities.

In the Health category, the Indonesian organisation DoctorSHARE was honoured for its pioneering work in delivering healthcare to remote and hard-to-reach areas through its floating hospitals. The organisation has made a widespread positive impact, treating more than 160,000 patients.

The Gaza Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP) from Palestine emerged as the winner in the Food category, commended for its contributions to supporting Gaza's agricultural sector. This non-profit organisation facilitates access to locally produced food and has provided employment opportunities for about 200 women in agriculture, benefiting over 7,000 individuals.

In the Energy category, Ignite Power from Rwanda was recognised for its significant efforts in providing affordable electricity to remote communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The company has supplied solar power solutions to 2.5 million people through a pay-as-you-go model, thereby avoiding 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. They have also introduced innovative solar-powered irrigation solutions, creating 3,500 job opportunities in local communities.

For the Water category, the French non-profit organisation Eau Et Vie was awarded for ensuring access to clean water in impoverished areas by installing water taps directly in homes in urban regions. The organisation has facilitated water access for 52,000 people across 27 neighbourhoods in 10 cities, raised health practice awareness among 66,000 individuals, and reduced water costs by 75 percent.

The Global High Schools category encourages youth to play active roles in supporting their communities and leading future sustainability efforts. The winners in this category, numbering 47 global high schools, have positively impacted the lives of more than 55,186 students and 453,887 people in their local communities. They are: Colegio De Alto Rendimiento De La Libertad (Peru), representing the Americas; Gwani Ibrahim Dan Hajja Academy (Nigeria), representing sub-Saharan Africa; International School (Morocco), representing the Middle East North Africa; Northfleet Technology College (United Kingdom), representing Europe Central Asia; KORT Education Complex (Pakistan), representing South Asia; and finally, Beijing High School No. 35 (China), representing East Asia Pacific.