Prime Minister Narendra Modi received United Nation’s highest environmental honour ‘Champions of the Earth Awards’. He is one among the six winners of this highest environmental honour. This award was announced for his “unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022.” Along with Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron also was announced the honor for the ‘Policy Leadership Category’ for their “pioneering work in championing” the International Solar Alliance and “new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action”. The UN Environment Programme released a statement regarding this.

As per United Nation’s Environment Program’s statement, this award will be presented during the Champions of the Earth Gala in New York City during 73rd UN General Assembly meeting. This is the UN’s highest environmental recognition “celebrating exceptional figures from the public and private sectors and from civil society, whose actions have had a transformative positive impact on the environment,” the UNEP noted.