A photo of a child sleeping in a house destroyed by coastal erosion in Ghana has won the Environmental Photographer of the Year 2021 competition, announced at Cop26.
Spanish photographer Antonio Aragon Renuncio won the top prize for his work titled The Rising Tide Son, taken at Afiadenyigba beach in the African nation.
The photo shines a spotlight on the rising sea levels in West African countries, which have forced thousands of people to leave their homes.
Now in its 14th year, the competition displays the most inspirational environmental photography from around the world.
It celebrates humanity’s ability to survive and innovate, and shows thought-provoking images that call attention to our environmental impact and inspire us to live sustainably.
The winners were announced by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, environmental video-on-demand platform Waterbear, Nikon Europe and multinational professional services group Arup.
The Young Environmental Photographer of the Year was awarded to Amaan Ali from India, for his work titled Inferno, showing a boy fighting surface fires in a forest near his home in Yamuna Ghat, New Delhi.
Flood, taken in 2020 by Michele Lapini, won the award's Environments of the Future category.
The award for Sustainable Cities: Net-Zero Transition was won by Simone Tramonte with her picture Photobioreactor in 2020.
Kevin Ochieng Onyango won the award for Climate Action with The Last Breath, shot in 2021.
Water and Security category was won by Sandipani Chattopadhyay with Green Barrier taken in 2021, while Survive for Alive by Ashraful Islam, also shot in 2021, won the Resilient Award.
The competition received more than 7,000 images from about 120 nations. They tell the stories of the climate and ecological emergency and people rising to the challenge.
The judging panel included British photographers Ope Odueyungbo and Alfie Bowen, Norway's Lina Kayser, and The New York Times photographer and Pulitzer Prize Winner Josh Haner.
