Contact: Gosia Luszczek, International YRE Director | E: gosia@fee.global
Kristina Madsen, International YRE Coordinator | E: kristina@fee.global
Copenhagen, June 2019
From thousands of entries submitted to national YRE Competitions in 36 countries this year, the top 200 finalists reached the International YRE Competition 2019. This is the largest number of entries YRE International has ever received, highlighting the growing movement of youth voices and the global interest in the YRE programme.
The awarded entries reflect some of the very best work carried out by YRE students from around the world. The International Jury was very impressed with the students’ choice of interesting local topics, including their reflection on the links to the Sustainable Development Goals as well as their skills on investigative journalism and critical thinking. The winning entries are listed below and will be published through Medium and on the website of Climate Tracker.
“This is my seventh year as a jury member and every year I am more and more impressed by the number of countries participating and also by the quality of the reporting within the articles, videos and photos. What really struck me this year was that the themes on the SDGs were much more focused and help showcase the goals,” says Julie Saito, UNESCO.
Slovakia and Malta became the two countries that received the highest number of awards. This clearly reflects the hard work of the YRE National Operators implementing the programme as well as the efforts by students and teachers. A number of Honourable Mentions were also given to countries that are new in the YRE Programme, including South Africa, Belgium and Puerto Rico.
"Youth are leading the climate and environmental fight, and the YRE submissions prove it! They are showing great passion on denouncing the environmental damages through writing, photo and video, and taking action to change. The future of environmental journalism and activism is quite safe!" says Anna Pérez Catalá, co-director of Climate Tracker and YRE Jury Member.
This year’s International YRE Jury
The International YRE Jury is composed of professionals in the fields of environmental journalism, corporate social responsibility and education for sustainable development, including representatives from UNESCO, UNEP, MARS Wrigley Foundation etc.
The International YRE Jury meeting took place on the 28th of May at the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) head office in Copenhagen, Denmark. There was a thorough discussion on what entries should be awarded based on different criteria such as the technical quality, investigation, originality, and dissemination of the entries. The Jury was free to give 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, as well as Honourable Mentions, as they saw fit.
List of Jury Members 2019:
Anne Vela-Wagner, Executive Director of the MARS Wrigley Foundation
Christopher Slaney, Freelance Journalist
Mari Nishimura, Ecosystem Division, UNEP
Torvald Jacobsson, Founding Partner of Edumanity and COO of TheGoals.org, Lund University (IIIEE)
Julie Saito, Programme Specialist of Communication, UNESCO
Pedro Marcelino, Documentary Film Producer and Director
Mayra Navarrete, Photographer
Anna Pérez Catalá, Environmental Scientist and co-director of Climate Tracker
Filipa Murta, YRE Alumnus from Portugal
Sasha Karajovic, FEE Board Member
Richard Steed, Communications Officer, FEE
Find detailed information about each Jury Member here.
From left to right: Pramod Sharma, Torvald Jacobsson, Sasha Karajovic, Gosia Luszczek, Filipa Murta, Pedro Marcelino. Richard Steed, Julie Saito, Anne Vela-Wagner, Mayra Navarrete, Christopher Slaney and Kristina Madsen
About the International YRE Competition
The International YRE Competition is composed of three age groups (11-14, 15-18 and 19-25) and three media categories (articles, photos and videos) as well as a special category for International Collaboration. To enter the International Competition, the entries must be awarded the 1st place in the National YRE Competitions held earlier in the year. For countries participating in the Litter Less Campaign, YRE students also have the opportunity to submit entries related to the issue of litter and waste which are assessed separately. All entries can be found on the YRE Competition's Exposure page.
The International YRE Competition winners for 2019 are:
Article
11-14 years old
1st Place
Title: The Upcycling Solution
Country: Slovakia
2nd Place
Title: Take Action, Don’t Wait for a Reaction
Country: Singapore
3rd Place
Title: Where is the ship sailing to?
Country: Montenegro
15-18 years old
1st Place
Title: Bees in the City: Small Insects, Big Problems
Country: Slovakia
2nd Place
Title: A Bloody Problem Period
Country: Canada
3rd Place
Title: The Folly of Developing New Vehicle Fuel Stations
Country: Malta
3rd Place
Title: The Polluting of the River Elbe by Chemical Plant Draslovka Kolín
Country: Czech Republic
Honourable Mention - for creating a moving piece on a local issue
Title: The Stream That Sees It All
Country: South Africa
Honourable Mention - for choosing a new and interesting topic
Title: The Dangers of a Bright Night
Country: Puerto Rico
19-25 years old
1st Place
Title: Climate Change: Looking Back for a Solution of Today
Country: Singapore
2nd Place
Title: A step into the unknown - climate change and Scotland's outdoors
Country: Scotland
2nd Place
Title: First Straw-Free City in Slovakia On the Horizon
Country: Slovakia
3rd Place
Title: Coastal erosion and its relation to climate change and human intervention
Country: Puerto Rico
Honourable Mention - for creating a moving piece with heart-breaking photos
Title: A noble companion - a careless beneficiary
Country: Ghana
Photo
11-14 years old
1st Place (Reportage Photo)
Title: The Secret Life of the Market
Country: Slovakia
2nd Place (Reportage Photo)
Title: Till death do us part…
Country: Cyprus
Honourable Mention (Reportage Photo) - for the technical quality of the photo
Title: Like Knows Like
Country: China
15-18 years old
1st Place (Campaign Photo)
Title: Stop Sucking The Life Out Of Our Oceans
Country: Canada
2nd Place (Campaign Photo)
Title: Next stop OCEAN
Country: Portugal
Honourable Mention (Reportage Photo) - for the technical quality of the photo and its strong message, although lacking an environmental angle
Title: The first row
Country: Belgium
19-25 years old
Honourable Mention (Reportage Photo) - for the technical quality of the photo
Title: Pollinators, the queens of life
Country: Portugal
Video
11-14 years old
1st Place (Reportage Video)
Title: ALPEDRETE QUARRIES
Country: Spain
1st Place (Reportage Video)
Title: A Little Respect
Country: Slovakia
2nd Place (Reportage Video)
Title: The energy transition in St-Pierre-etMiquelon
Country: France
Honourary Mention (Campaign Video) - for sending a good message
Title: Life without plastic
Country: Greece
15-18 years old
1st Place (Reportage Video)
Title: Where did the darkness go?
Country: Slovakia
2nd Place (Reportage Video)
Title: Wise man - Wise consumer
Country: Israel
3rd Place (Reportage Video)
Title: Plastic Packing in grocery stores
Country: Canada
3rd Place (Campaign Video)
Title: Climate smart food
Country: Sweden
19-25 years old
1st Place (Reportage Video)
Title: Stop waste now!
Country: France
2nd Place (Reportage Video)
Title: Circular economy in local community
Country: Slovenia
Honourable Mention (Campaign Video) - for the technical quality of the video
Title: Dear Everyone
Country: Singapore
International Collaboration
1st Place (Article, 15-18 years)
Title: Behind the biggest producer and exporter of cork
Countries: Portugal, Turkey, Greece, and Malta
1st Place (Reportage Video, 19-25 years)
Title: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM - IS IT POSSIBLE?
Country: Malta and Spain
2nd Place (Article, 15-18 years)
Title: Red Meat consumption – an international collaborative research
Countries: Portugal and Israel
Winners in Litter Less Campaign category:
Article
11-14 years old
1st Place
Title: Refocus and reduce….No to Junk Mail!
Country: Malta
2nd Place
Title: To Kill a Seabird
Country: New Zealand
3rd Place
Title: “Dumped from home” Were you dumped from home? Are you not in your best shape anymore?
Country: Israel
15-18 years old
1st Place
Title: When Life Gives You Lemons
Country: New Zealand
2nd Place
Title: Brown is the New-Green
Country: Israel
19-25 years old
1st Place
Title: Lower waste, slimmer waists - Fighting food wastage, one grain at a time
Country: India
Photo
11-14 years old
1st Place (Campaign Photo)
Title: It's time to wake up to the problem of plastic!
Country: Northern Ireland
2nd Place (Campaign Photo)
Title: People are blind to see
Country: Malta
15-18 years old
1st Place (Reportage Photo)
Title: Home sweet home
Country: Malta
Honourable Mention (Reportage Photo) - for highlighting the issue of plastic and wildlife
Title: We are Not the Only Ones
Country: New Zealand
19-25 years old
1st Place (Photo Reportage)
Title: FROM TIMES PAST
Country: Spain
2nd Place (Photo Reportage)
Title: Dream Island – you Decide?
Country: Wales
Video
11-14 years old
1st Place (Campaign Video)
Title: One meal, a lot of garbage!
Country: Israel
2nd Place (Reportage Video)
Title: REPORT ON SCHOOL-GROUND RUBBISH
Country: Australia
Honourable Mention (Campaign Video) - as a fun campaign video that was screened at a film festival
Title: Moepapa (Nightmare)
Country: New Zealand
15-18 years old
1st Place (Campaign Video)
Title: Bring your own
Country: Malta
2nd Place (Campaign Video)
Title: What do you do with your E-waste?
Country: Israel
2nd Place (Campaign Video)
Title: Find a Home for the Trash. We Are on the Move!
Country: China
19-25 years old
No entries were submitted in this age group