The prestigious “Blue Planet Prize” has just been awarded to IPBES for the partnership’s strong focus on protecting the Earth’s vulnerable environment for future generations. With this award, IPBES joins the ranks of Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jared Diamond, and other notable figures who have previously received the prize.
The global IPBES collaboration has received the prestigious “Blue Planet Prize” from the Asahi Glass Foundation in Japan. The prize was established in 1992 and is awarded to individuals or organizations that have distinguished themselves through outstanding scientific work that contributes to finding solutions to global environmental problems.
The award is presented as a contribution to protecting the Earth’s fragile environment for the future and is inspired by the first cosmonaut in space, the Russian Yuri Gagarin. When Gagarin saw the Earth from space, he said, “The planet is blue.”
The Asahi Glass Foundation considers the Earth’s environmental problems to be among the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, the destruction of tropical rainforests, and the pollution of freshwater and the oceans.
IPBES is regarded as the leading authority on the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services. In particular, the global reports from IPBES, which bridge the gap between science and policy across geographic scales, sectors, and knowledge systems, are highlighted. As an example, the report mentions how companies use information from IPBES reports in their ESG activities and reporting.
The award to IPBES therefore goes to the thousand leading scientists from all corners of the world who devote a significant portion of their time to synthesizing and preparing the reports; to the 146 member states that support IPBES and the many stakeholders who are engaged with IPBES and are essential to its mission of bridging the gap between science and policy. The award comes with a prize of 500,000 USD.
The entire IPBES community is deeply honored by this tremendous accolade. It recognizes the invaluable work of thousands of IPBES scientists and knowledge-holders, including Indigenous and local communities, and the contributions they continue to make toward achieving our most important global development goals, especially through the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
– Dr. David Obura, IPBES Chair
In the company of renowned award winners
The other 2024 laureate is Professor Robert Costanza, who, among other achievements, published a groundbreaking and provocative article in 1997 on the economic value of all of Earth’s ecosystem services, which far exceeded the planet’s GDP.
Costanza’s work drew attention to ecosystem services, including the many benefits of biodiversity that do not immediately have a market value. In this context, Costanza was a co-founder of a new research discipline within ecological economics.
Past recipients of the prize include Norway’s former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, after whom the “Brundtland Report” was named in 1987; Jared Diamond, who has written a number of groundbreaking books on humans and nature; Norman Myers, who introduced the concept of “hot spots” in relation to biodiversity; and Simon Stuart, who has worked on nature conservation and globally endangered species for a generation.
The awards ceremony will take place in Tokyo, Japan, on October 23, 2024. Read more about the award in IPBES’ official press release here.
