This was announced on Wednesday by Dr. Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, minister of Environment and Water at a press conference that was held at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai.
The Zayed Prize, which is in its fifth cycle, is divided into three categories. The jury said the prize for Global Leadership in Environment, with a $500,000 prize money, will go to Lee Myung-bak as he seized the moment to commit his country to “Green Growth,” creating new growth engines and jobs through green technology and clean energy.
Sir Partha Sarathi Dasgupta won Zayed Prize for Scientific and Technological Achievements in Environment. The prize money of $300,000 will go to him for his contributions in research and eco-friendly technology.
Sir Partha Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at Cambridge University in the UK and one of the most outstanding environmental economists of his generation. An Indian national, he has been one of the leading economists making the link between sustainability and economics in many ways well before such work was fashionable or fully understood.
Mathis Wackernagel and Najib Saab from Lebanon shared the Zayed Prize for Environmental Action that Leads to Positive Changes in Society. They will share the prize money $200.000.
Mathis Wackernagel has, through the co-founding of the Global Footprint Network (GFN) in 2003, translated the complexity of humanity’s impact on the environment and natural resources into a more understandable and actionable form.
Prof. Najib Saab founded the groundbreaking and highly successful Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia (Environment and Development) magazine in 1996.
The magazine triggered unprecedented environmental awareness at all levels, built a new relationship between the policy-makers and people of the Arab world with the issues of environment and sustainability, and placed the environment high on national and regional agendas.
The winners will be honored by the Zayed Prize patron, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at a special award ceremony on March 14th 2011 at Dubai International Convention Center.
The ceremony will be attended by environment ministers from different countries and heads of regional and international organizations.