2023
Climate Team of the Association for International Affairs (AMO)
Martin Abel, Michal Čepelka, Nina Djukanović, Romana Jungwirth Březovská, Tomáš Jungwirth Březovský, Barbora Chmelová, Vendula Kazlauskas, Ondřej Kolínský, Michaela Kožmínová, Štěpánka Králíková, Václav Kříž, Petr Kutílek, Vojtěch Pecka, Oldřich Sklenář, Veronika Šmausová, Jan Svoboda, Adéla Syslová, Lucia Vilimovská, Kristina Zindulková
The team of researchers led by Tomáš Jungwirth Březovský has been doing excellent analytical and popularization work on climate protection and related measures and policies across sectors in Czechia and internationally for several years. They bring important issues to the public debate and provide compelling data and interpretation. They publish outputs on strategic climate change issues. They communicate excellently with science, policy, practice and the public. They appear frequently in major media. They engage in dialogue with policy makers through seminars and panel discussions, directly with those who most need to understand climate change and its solutions. They also run an educational project for university students who want to improve their knowledge and skills to influence the direction of climate policy.
2023 Honorary Award for Outstanding Achievement:
Petr Daniš
Director of the TEREZA Education Centre and Chairman of the Pavučina network of environmental education centres
The Vice-President of the CzechLearned Societyand the Head of the UN Information Office Czechia awarded Petr Daniš the Honorary Award for Climate Change Communication for his book “Climate is an Opportunity”, an enlightened guide drawing on the latest expert knowledge on how to tackle the climate problem. This is an extraordinary achievement in the field of climate change communication in Czechia.
The 2023 Honorary Award for Outstanding Achievement:
Vojtěch Pecka
sociologist, analyst, occasional editor and curator
The Vice President of the Czech Learned Society and the Head of the UN Information Office in Czechia awarded Vojtěch Pecka the Honorary Prize for Climate Change Communication for his book “The Lie Factory: the Production of Climate Disinformation”, in which he reveals how political and commercial forces manipulate information, leading to a delay in climate action. This is an extraordinary achievement in the field of climate change communication in Czechia.
2022
Mgr. Marie Šabacká, Ph.D.
Polar Ecologist, Head of the Centre for Polar Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
Marie Šabacká deals with the impacts of climate change on land glaciers and in polar regions, which are undergoing faster and more dramatic changes than other parts of the world due to global warming. She presents important messages to the public about the state and changes of the cryosphere, with an emphasis on the links with other ecosystems.
She presents knowledge about climate change in the media in a clear and engaging way, based on her own experience and personal story, with the sense of urgency. She is a frequent guest on respected television programmes such as Václav Moravec’s Fokus on Czech Television or DVTV interviews, she appears on podcasts and a number of her public lectures are available on YouTube. She also communicates climate change issues on her X account, where she already gained more than 10,000 followers.
Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award:
Radim Šrám, MD, DrSc.
geneticist, molecular epidemiologist, coordinator of the HAIE program at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava, long-time head of the Department of Genetic Ecotoxicology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the CAS, chairman of the Environmental Commission of the CAS
The Honorary Prize was awarded to Dr. Radi Šrám for his lifelong efforts to improve the quality of life of people and the environment. For most of his scientific career, Dr. Šrám has been concerned with the health risks of living in polluted areas. He has long been involved in broader aspects of environmental protection as the Chair of the Environmental Commission of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which has been one of the sponsors of the Scientific Climate Forum in the Czech Republic since 2013.
2021
Prof. Mgr. Ing. Miroslav Trnka, Ph.D.
senior researcher at the Global Change Research Institute CAS (CzechGlobe), professor at the Institute of Agrosystems and Bioclimatology, Mendel University, Brno
As a leading Czech scientist, he is researching meteorological and agricultural drought and other impacts of climate change. He is the leader of the teams running the intersucho.cz, klimatickazmena.cz, firerisk.cz and most recently agrorisk.cz portals, which are updated on a daily basis, provide free valuable information on climate change to the general public and serve as early warning systems for farmers and other groups of the Czech population.
Dr. Trnka is the author of a number of studies in prestigious international journals such as Nature Climate Change and International Journal of Climatology. He has long been involved in communicating bioclimatology and climate change issues in the media and public forums. His insightful commentaries enable readers and listeners to understand that global change affects all of us.
Prof. RNDr. Bedřich Moldan, CSc., dr.h.c.
founder and deputy director of the Environment Centre, Charles University, geochemist, ecologist, publicist, politician
Professor Bedřich Moldan was awarded the Honorary Climate Change Communication Prize for his lifelong efforts to improve the quality of the environment, nature and human relationships with nature and with each other. In addition, for his long-standing efforts to highlight climate change issues in the fields of research and expertise, journalism, politics – at all levels of politics in the Czech Republic and internationally – and for his climate change-related activities in the civic and educational fields.
2020
Mgr. Ondráš Přibyla
theoretical physicist, lecturer, mediator and consultant
founder and leader of “Fakta o klimatu” (The Climate Facts) project
Ondráš Přibyla and the team of “Fakta o klimatu” (The Facts on Climate)[1] project present scientific knowledge about climate change in a comprehensible and clear way. They collect data from professional and scientific institutions (IPCC, CHMI, NASA, Eurostat, WMO) and process attractive visual outputs: graphs, tables, maps and other overviews explaining key phenomena. Infographics can be freely used in the education system, the media, civil society organizations, companies or in political work. In this way, they make a significant contribution to education and cultivation of a reliable, factual and current knowledge-based debate on climate change.
[1] Ondráš Přibyla, Tomáš Protivínský, Martin Ukrop, Jan Krčál, Kristýna Zákopčanová, Oldřich Sklenář, Kateřina Kolouchová, Matěj Grabovský, Martin Křivánek, Ondřej Pechník, Marek Lahoda, Eliška Vlčková.
2019
RNDr. Radim Tolasz, Ph.D.
climatologist, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Representative of the Czech Republic in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), expert of the World Meteorological Organization
Dr. Radim Tolasz has long strived to popularize climate change in terms of scientific knowledge, especially climatology and meteorology. He writes a regular blog, appears in the media and in public forums, communicates on social networks about the causes and possible effects of climate change, explains complex climate phenomena including activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in simple language. He publicly communicates his views on possible adaptation and emission reduction solutions. As the representative of the Czech Republic in the IPCC, he has played an important role in presenting the Reports of this international scientific panel to the Czech public since 2014. Through his activities in the field of public awareness, dr. Tolasz is an example of a scientist who understands the correlation between science, politics and public life.