The Independent will soon publish the return of its anticipated Climate 100 List, celebrating the change makers and innovators who are making a positive impact to tackle the climate crisis.
The full list ranges from activists and scientists to creatives and business leaders who are taking action, not only by inventing potentially world-changing solutions, but also by increasing public awareness to the escalating problems the world faces.
It will be published to coincide with the United Nations' Summit of the Future in New York, part of the 16th annual Climate Week NYC.
Through The Independent's popular Climate newsletter, readers were asked to nominate an unsung climate hero for the Readers Choice section. After receiving hundreds of nominations, they were whittled down to just five.
These include people across industries, such as environmental work, visual arts, working towards a just transition, bringing climate activism to the youth, and an alternative way to music touring. Ahead of the entire Climate 100 List being published, here we can reveal the Reader's Choice nominees.
Sarah Johnson, the head of peatland nature recovery at Lancashire's Wildlife Trust, has been included for her pivotal commitment to environmental work. Often, the importance of natural peatlands are vastly overlooked, but she's spent decades helping to restore them, as well as communicating their importance as hugely successful carbon sinks, which are thought to be twice as effective as forests.
We've also included the work of Robbie Macpherson who is a driving force in working towards a fair transition away from fossil fuels. Until recently, he was a senior political advisor at Uplift, which focuses on ending a reliance on gas and oil. Now, he's carrying out research on the subject thanks to being awarded the Churchill Fellowship, a UK charity supporting research abroad. Macpherson's project is looking at how Denmark and Colombia are attempting to phase out oil and gas production. The aim is the UK can follow suit and reduce its reliance on extracting fossil fuels from the North Sea.
From Canada, Ben von Wong's work as a visual artist has been highlighted. He uses his often large sculptures to make powerful messages, which are often related to plastic pollution. His most recent, 'The Thinker's Burden' was installed outside the Plastic Treaty negotiations at Geneva’s Palais des Nations. It was to show the sheer scale of our reliance on plastics, and the ever-worsening issue of microplastics, which affect not only us, but future generations too.
Frances Fox earned a place in the Reader's Choice section as an innovator of connecting to younger generations through the music festivals. She founded Climate Live music festival, which is responsible for bringing climate activism to young people. It also created a solar-powered pink bus that travels to other festivals to spread the word through campaigning and raising awareness on climate justice and youth activism.
Last, but not least is musician Sarah Small who defied the traditional method of touring, eschewing traveling by aeroplane, cars or coaches. Instead she took to two wheels, strapping her Viola da Gamba, a 4ft wood instrument, to the back of her bike and cycled more than 4,500km around the UK, visiting areas usually left out from music tours.
The full list will be published on 21 September. Our live event will include a keynote speech from Greg Jackson, the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, the UK’s biggest domestic energy supplier, which is committed to making energy clean, fair and simple and supports the green energy transition.
Hosting the event will be The Independent’s Editor-in-Chief, Geordie Greig, who continues to put climate reporting at the heart of The Independent’s journalism.
“Climate 100 is an important opportunity to celebrate the incredible work done by leaders who want to propose or propel change,” he said.
“The climate crisis is one of the defining and urgent challenges of our time. I am delighted we can recognise the people who work to make a difference to the planet and inspire the rest of us.”
