2010 CHAMPIONS OF EARTH AWARD

During the summit, the 2010 winners of the Champions of the Earth Awards were announced.

The awards, first established in 1994, recognize achievements in areas of Entrepreneurial Vision, Policy and Leadership, Science and Innovation, Inspiration and Action and Biodiversity and Ecosystems Management.

Among this year's six champions stood China's top-class movie star Zhou Xun, who won the award under Inspiration and Action category.

"(Zhou's) well publicized statements, advice and life-style choices are influencing millions of fans to become more environmentally-conscious citizens and consumers," Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Environment Program (UNEP) Executive Director, said in a press release.

"She has not only devoted her time to her career as an actress and to film, but she has also given her time to promoting, in a sense, a rethink in China amongst over one and a half billion people," Steiner said in a press conference.

At the press conference, Zhou said she was honored and humbled to be awarded the prize, vowing to push for her efforts to promote green life style among China's young people.

Zhou is the second Chinese to win one of the most renowned awards in the environment dimension.

Five other laureates to win the awards were Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana, Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives, Mostapha Zaher, Afghanistan's Director General of the National Environmental Protection Agency, Takahashi Taro, Japanese earth scientist, Vinod Khosla, American venture capitalist.