4 June 2009: As part of this year’s World Environment Day celebrations, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is launching “Climate Heroes,” a long term platform supporting a select group of people undertaking exceptional acts of environmental activism under the global banner, “Unite to Combat Climate Change.”

The collaboration between UNEP and the Climate Heroes is intended to build interest, inspiration and momentum to the UN’s “Seal the Deal!” campaign, which urges world leaders to agree on a fair, balanced and effective agreement at the climate change meeting in Copenhagen, this December.
Climate Heroes include: Roz Savage, a rower, who will row across the Pacific Ocean and walk from London to Copenhagen; David de Rothschild and his crew, who will sail approximately 10,000 nautical miles across the Pacific in a boat made of plastic bottles; Project Kaisei, which will study how to capture plastic waste in the ocean, and then detoxify and recycle it into diesel fuel; Luo Hong, an activist environmental photographer whose work is currently on exhibit at UN Headquarters in New York, US; and Charles and Sho Scott (8 years old), a father-son pair who will ride connected bikes from Cape Souya in northern Japan to Kyushu in the south. [UNEP Press Release]