The winners of this year’s Prototypes for Humanity Awards will share a $100,000 prize fund to help develop their ideas. The Awards support design solutions to social and environmental issues created by students and their universities. Its five categories reflect key COP28 themes. HyaPak, from Joseph Nguthiru and Egerton University in Nairobi, won the Nature, Food and Water Systems category. It converts water hyacinth into biodegradable plastic alternatives. The Health, Relief and Safety category was won by Golden Capsule, a medicine-injection device optimised for emergency disaster scenarios created by Yujin Chae of Hongik University in South Korea. See all the winners here

“TikTok made cottage cheese cool. Can it do the same for climate-friendly eating?” asks Claire Elise Thompson on Grist. “A growing contingent of plant-based and low-waste creators suggests that sustainable eating could "go viral" — but maybe not in the way we expect,” she says. Read the article here

Also on Grist, Joseph Winters looks at local efforts in Roubaix and Nouvelle-Aquitaine in France to change behaviours in order to reduce waste. According to Winters, Roubaix’s voluntary, education-based approach, which includes a scheme to teach 100 families how to cut their waste by 50%, is drawing International attention. In the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region north of Bordeaux, by contrast, “a regional waste management authority called Smicval is experimenting with more structural interventions like moving garbage bins and charging people differently for waste collection”. Both approaches exist in the context of France’s nationwide waste-reducing action plan. Read the article here

Out of 1500 participants from 54 countries, you can now vote for your favourites from the 275 nominees in the Green Product Awards 2024. The public vote runs until 14 January with winners announced in April. See all the nominated projects here

It’s beyond the scope of this newsletter to cover COP28: for that, and for expert coverage of the science and policy debates on Climate Change, we recommend Carbon Brief and its excellent daily newsletter, which brings together Climate coverage from around the world. Find it here

The link has been copied!