Climate Change PIX – 2021 photo competition

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Our climate is changing. We might not be aware of it, but climate change affects us all. For this year’s photo competition, the European Environment Agency (EEA) invites you to capture what it means to live in a changing climate in Europe, to share your take on climate change.

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Climate Change PIX
- Climate Change PIX – 2021 photo competition

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Climate Change PIX image The scientific evidence is clear. Floods, landslides, droughts and wildfires have become more frequent and intense. And these changes are caused by greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere by human activities, mainly through combustion of fossil fuels and changes in land use.

Science is also clear that we need to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions substantially in order to avoid the most adverse impacts of climate change. Even if global efforts reduce emissions drastically and quickly, the climate will continue to change for some time. We have no choice but to adapt to new ways of living in a changing climate.

Submissions closed on 1 August 2021 and all the competition winners, including the winner of the Public Choice Award, were announced on 20 September 2021.

Climate Change PIX calls for photos focusing on climate change in our lives. To participate in the competition, photos could be submitted in any of these four categories under two overarching headings — impacts and solutions:

Impacts of climate change

Climate change affects our health, environment, and economy. Some of its impacts are visible and dramatic — such as the destruction of homes after a landslide or a devastating flood or wildfire. Others are less visible — such as increase in ocean acidity — and impact some people and areas more than others. For example, the elderly are more vulnerable to heatwaves or southern Europe is more susceptible to droughts.

Climate change impacts like drier or wetter seasons can favour some species over others, affecting their ability to survive in these new conditions. Climate change also impacts many socioeconomic sectors, including agriculture, forestry, energy production, tourism, and infrastructure. Fish species migrating north can result in high unemployment in local economies. Less rainfall in certain seasons can impact crop yields or power production in dams.

Show how climate change has impacted your life and surroundings under these two categories:

1. Impacts on nature: How does climate change affect our environment? Can you see how it has impacted air, land, water and wildlife?
2. Impacts on society: How does climate change affect our society? Can you photograph its impacts on human health, lifestyles, infrastructure and the economy?

Solutions to climate change

Climate change may be one of the most complex issues we are facing today. However, solutions do exist to reduce our carbon footprint and protect us from climate change. Apart from infrastructures and technological advances, many of us are adjusting our lifestyles and learning to cope with some of the impacts, such as extreme temperatures. Show what an individual, a community, a city or a country, or an economic sector (e.g.: transport, forestry, agriculture) do to stop, slow down or adapt to climate change under these two categories:

3. Solutions – society: Many communities and cities are taking action to reduce their carbon footprint and adapt to climate change. These could include investments in new infrastructures or infrastructure improvements (e.g.: building cycling paths across the city) or adoption of nature-based solutions (e.g.: planting trees along riverbanks to reduce floods or green spaces in cities to absorb excess rainwater). Can you capture what your community is doing?
4. Solutions – individual action: What can you do about climate change? Capture low-carbon lifestyles and decisions that are within your reach (e.g.: flying less, going car-free altogether; changing what you buy and eat – going on a plant-based diet; using energy efficient products or preparing your home for floods, droughts or heat waves).

Get inspired and to find out more about climate change impacts and possible solutions:

EEA thematic pages:
European Commission webpage on nature-based solutions
Climate-ADAPT
European Climate and Health Observatory

Eligibility criteria

Citizens of the following countries are eligible to enter the competition: EU 27 Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey; under the stabilisation and association agreements: North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The photos must be taken in the countries mentioned above.

All participants must be 18 or older.

You must have full copyrights to the submitted material. By submitting an entry, you will be presumed to have agreed to accept the Competition rules and the Terms and Conditions. One entrant may submit maximum 5 entries in total in the competition. As each entry will be handled separately, you need to fill out the online submission form for each entry if you chose to submit more than one entry.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

Prizes

The winners in each category (Impacts on nature, Impacts on society, Solutions - society, Solutions - individual action) will be awarded a cash prize of EUR 1000, while EUR 500 is on offer for both the Public Choice Award and the Youth Prize.

The Youth Prize will be awarded to the winning entry, selected among those submitted by persons aged between 18 and 24 (born between calendar years 1997-2003, both included) to any of the four competition categories.

All finalists will be put forward for the Public Choice Award and may also feature in future digital and print material from the EEA and its European partners.

The copyright of the materials submitted for this competition remains with the respective participants. However, each entrant grants the EEA and its partners the right to use the submitted materials in its environmental communication, crediting the copyright owners.

Selection process

The EEA will appoint a pre-selection committee consisting of communication and environment experts that will select 30-50 finalists. These will then be submitted to an external jury to be composed of environmental communication experts from across Europe, who will determine the winners, with the exception of the Public Choice Award.

For the Public Choice Award, the finalist entries put forward by the pre-selection committee will be open to a public vote from 1 to 15 September 2021.

The winners will be notified by email and the official announcement of the winners will follow on the 20 September 2021.

Timetable