The 2011 Right Livelihood Awards were announced today at a press conference in Stockholm . 2011 year’s four winners are rewarded for their contributions to the solutions to global problems. This year’s Honorary Award goes to Huang Ming from China, a leading entrepreneur in the solar energy field, “for his outstanding success in the development and mass-deployment of cutting-edge technologies for harnessing solar energy, thereby showing how dynamic emerging economies can contribute to resolving the global crisis of anthropogenic climate change“.
This is the first time a Right Livelihood Award goes to a person in China since the prize was instituted in 1980. Executive Director for the Right Livelihood Foundation, Ole von Uexkull, commented on the price and the winner stating that the growing climate chaos is the greatest overriding challenge for humanity, and the key solution is to expand the use of renewable energy as rapidly as possible.
“ If China does not take a leading role in this effort, the rest of the world will not be able to do enough and will not choose to do enough. That is why it is so important to highlight Huang Ming’s work in the solar energy field. It is the first time that a Right Livelihood Award goes to China, and we are delighted to honour an outstanding visionary who pushes for the kind of exemplary and practical solutions this Award was created for.”von Uexkull said.
