COP25, one of the protagonists of the 2019 Ecovidrio Awards

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) “is flooded” with proposals for collaboration and aid “without prior call” for the Climate Summit (COP25) in Madrid, a “country challenge” for Spain, which “wants to put the best of itself to be a success”.

This was explained by the acting Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, who thanked on Friday the volume of contributions for “this national and international challenge” during the ceremony of the XX edition of the Ecovidrio Awards in Madrid.

Morán has announced that the new circular economy plan developed by MITECO includes “two main lines: climate change and the conservation of biodiversity and resources” and for this he has insisted that it is necessary to “change our model of production and consumption”.

To this end, he highlighted the role of citizens, especially in the circular economy and the promotion of zero pollution.

“Social awareness is of great importance and we are increasingly aware, committed and active in this regard,” he said, in addition to indicating that the promotion of the circular economy “will have two main lines: the form of production, and design and repair”, especially in the textile, construction, food and communication technologies sectors.

The main guest of this year’s awards ceremony has been the former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, who has received the ‘Environmental Personality of the Year’ award for her “innumerable contributions to the fight against climate change at the international level”.

Figueres thanked the recognition asking for “a change of general attitude because the responsibility is not only of the national governments but of all citizens”

In addition, he congratulated and praised “the courage and madness” of the Spanish Government and especially of “my great friend Teresa Ribera”, the acting Minister of the Environment for “getting Chile and the world out of the problem by agreeing to organize COP25”.

This year’s ‘Greatest Citizen Impact’ award has been awarded to the city of Vitoria for its “broad achievement in the Sustainable Development Goals”, as well as the improvement in urban sustainability and the fight against the effects of climate change.

In the written press category, the winners were journalists Cristina Castro and Rafael Ordoñez, from El Independiente, for their report ‘Spain, August 2050, how we will survive climate change’.

In the Television category, the winner was the journalist Usoa Zubiría, from Televisión Española, for her report ‘Bioplastics with livestock remains’.

Javier Gregori, journalist of Cadena Ser has been the winner of the Radio category for his report ‘Record in glass recycling in Spain: we visit a plant to know how it is recycled’ and the sustainable fashion platform ‘Ethical Time’ has won in the Digital Initiative.

In addition, Ecovidrio has launched this year a special recognition of the work of a lifetime, the Ecólatra award, which in this first edition has gone to the fashion designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, who has declared herself “convinced ecologist” because “I recycle to the false eyelashes”.

Source: The Vanguard