Abu Dhabi yesterday joined the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge during a virtual ceremony hosted by The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD)in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on World Water Day.
The challenge aims to educate students about single-use plastics and invites them to take part in tackling this issue to become future champions of change.The Tide Turner Plastic Challenge contributes to addressing a major issue that affects ecosystems globally.Single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced in the world, and every year about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations.
The Tide Turner Plastic Challenge is designed to inspire the young generation to think about its plastic consumption and understand how plastic pollution is threatening life in oceans, other water bodies and on land. It also inspires them to discover solutions to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics, and encourages friends, family, schools or the community to join the challenge to be part of an entire generation of young leaders advocating change in the world.
The challenge is open to students aged 11–18, in addition to members of environmental clubs in 20 public and private schools in the Emirate ofAbu Dhabi. Young people can register as individuals to participate in the challenge. The number of participants must not exceed 50 students from each school. EAD is aiming to target 1,000 students from the Sustainable Schools network during the pilot phase.
The challenge has three levels – entry, leader and champion –with a point-scoring system: scoring enough points in each level allows the participant to move to the next level of the challenge. At each level, the participant will be introduced to basic information that will help them learn more about the specific issues related to single-use plastics, waste and pollution.
Since its inception in February 2019, the programme has been rolled out in 28 countries and has engaged more than 352,000 young people.
Khansa Al Blouki, Director of Environmental Outreach at EAD, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with the UNEP, as we both have similar goals in terms of empowering, supporting and providing educational programmes that build up students’ leadership capacity to facilitate change in the community.”
She added: “The Tide Turner Plastic Challenge contributes to addressing a major issue that affects the ecosystem globally, and for us this challenge is part of preparations for plans set by EAD to declare Abu Dhabi Emirate single-use-plastic-free by mid-2022.”
Al Blouki noted: “Furthermore, EAD and UNEP are simultaneously working towards tackling issues related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, as they are directly aligned with the framework of this programme. Single-useplastics are considered a major issue threatening our ecosystems, which is why we all need to accumulate our efforts and work closely together to address this pressing issue."
Sam Barratt, Chief of UNEP’s Youth, Education and Advocacy Unit,said: “We have witnessed over the years that working with youth movements, NGOs, schools and universities is a great opportunity for us to reach millions of youth. We support all the largest youth movements and organizations that work towards shifting the mindsets, awareness and behaviour of young people regarding the environmental agenda. We want to create a systemic change in youth organizations to enable them to consider the environment as a major priority in their lives.”
Participants in the Pilot Phase for Abu Dhabi must upload their entries via a link specified by EAD, between 5 March and 8 June 2021. The names of the winners will be announced by 16 June on World Sea Turtle Day. Winners of the first and second levels will receive a certificate from UNEP, while the winner of the third level will receive the Challenge Badge.