HONOURED IN THE NAME OF SHEIKH ZAYED
Japanese inventor among proud winners of Future Energy Prize
As the country comes together to commemorate the Founding Father this year, Sheikh Zayed’s environmental legacy lives on in an award that supports the brightest and most ambitious minds in sustainability efforts.
In its 10th year, the Zayed Future Energy Prize yesterday awarded millions of dollars to nine people, schools, companies and organisations in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
“Sheikh Zayed’s environmental stewardship continues to shape the development of our nation, guiding it to greater heights while inspiring sustainability initiatives globally,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
“It truly is heartening to witness the Prize’s far-reaching impact across the world in the past decade, improving energy access, quality of life and the environment through innovations in clean technology.”
Sheikh Mohammed presented the awards with Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and Chairman of Abu Dhabi’s green-energy company Masdar.
Dr Al Jaber said the future of sustainable development was in the hands of the youths.
“Today we turn to this next generation. It is their energy, imagination and drive that will ensure we remain on track towards sustainability in a fast-evolving world,” he said.
This year’s Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week is focused on Generation Next.
“No one is more suited, more willing and more able to stay ahead of the curve than our positive young people,” Dr Al Jaber said.
“As we celebrate the Year of Zayed, it is their turn to take Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week to the next level, to carry forward the legacy of our Founding Father and fulfil his vision of a world that will endure for countless generations, underpinned by peace, progress and prosperity.”
Prof Shuji Nakamura, an inventor and Nobel Prize winner, was presented with the prestigious $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) Lifetime Achievement Award.
Prof Nakamura is widely regarded as the inventor of the energy-saving blue LED lights.
“I didn’t expect to win at all,” said the Japanese inventor, 63.
Prof Nakamura has always been at the forefront of innovation, convincing his boss at a small company in Japan in the 1980s to pursue development of a blue or green LED.
Companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba were spending $100m at the time to develop LEDs.
“My company’s revenue was $20m at the time. I was desperate so I asked my chairman, he agreed and funded it with $5m,” Prof Nakamura said.
It took him four years to develop. “I’m very happy because LED is everywhere now,” Prof Nakamura said. “It reduces electricity consumption dramatically.”
The winners of the eight other awards, worth a total of Dh14.7m, were also announced yesterday, with thousands of policymakers, experts and heads of state in attendance.
Winners included Google, which won the Large Corporation Award for its efforts to re-use materials in what its vice president of data centres described as “circular economy”.
The $1.5m prize for small and medium enterprises was awarded to Sunna Design and the $1.5m non-profit organisation award was won by Selco Foundation.
In the Global High Schools category, five institutions from five different regions received $100,000 each.
Centro Educativo Mbaracayu, in Paraguay, won the award from the Americas; Croatia’s Vladimir Nazor School won in Europe; and Aouda Saadia High School in Marrakech was awarded the Dh367,300 prize for Africa.
Motufoua Secondary School from the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu won from Oceania, and the Bahrain Bayan School won the Asian category.
The Zayed Future Energy Prize was launched in 2008 by Sheikh Mohammed at the World Future Energy Summit.
When the Zayed Future Energy Prize was launched at the inaugural World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in 2008, the landscape of the UAE looked very different. Oil was close to $140 a barrel and the country’s development was in full swing before the global recession had bitten. Yet rather than simply reaping the profits, the wheels had already been set in motion for a long-term sustainability plan. Today it is a core tenet of the national agenda and one of the key objectives forming the UAE Vision 2021 plan. Great strides have been made in energy diversification, with forays into wind, solar and nuclear energy. Those plans culminated this month in the annual Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the biggest event of its kind in the region. These initiatives are driving the UAE’s transition to a post-oil, knowledge economy.
Ultimately, we have the Zayed Future Energy Prize to thank for much of that fervour. The UAE’s Founding Father Sheikh Zayed had a lifelong passion for nature and the environment. Today the UAE boasts more than 100 million trees, dozens of forests and some 160,000 hectares of arable land. As we celebrate the centenary of his birth in the Year of Zayed, his legacy of environmental stewardship lives on. At the Zayed Future Energy Prize ceremony, held yesterday in Abu Dhabi, awards of $4 million were bestowed on pioneers of sustainability in recognition of work around the planet to protect it for future generations. This year’s awards build on a 10-year legacy of the prize, which was ahead of its time in recognising the importance of sustainability and rewarding its trailblazers. Distinguished previous winners include former US vice president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore, who scooped the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Indeed, since its inception, winners have positively influenced the lives of an estimated 307 million people across the globe, with about 157 million people gaining access to renewable energy. The high school winners alone have saved more than 2,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2013. This year’s recipients are equally inspiring. Yesterday Japanese engineer Shuji Nakamura won the Lifetime Achievement Award for his invention of the energy-saving blue LED. Other corporate and individual winners included French solar streetlight maker Sunna Design and the Selco Foundation, a non-profit sustainable energy collaborative. But it is the school awards – given this year to institutions in Paraguay, Croatia, Morocco, Tuvalu and Bahrain – that best encapsulate the vision of the country’s founder. These are the environmental leaders and pioneers of the future, in whose hands the protection of the planet rests. Their recognition is vital in helping them to perpetuate the vision of the awards’ namesake.