In pictures: COP21 reveals human dimension of climate change

Madeleine Cuff
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COP21 Photography Award 2015
When the river sounds david martin huamani bedoya peru 580x358.jpeg
First prize 580x358.jpeg
Second prize 580x358.jpeg
Recycling energy 1 subodh naatu india 580x358.jpeg
Steam engine cory rosenberg france 580x358.jpeg
Sands of time romain veillon france 580x358.jpeg
Hazy axis wish of blue sky fengli yuan china 580x358.jpeg
In search of water supriya biswas india 580x358.jpeg
Rishikesh singh joginder luca italy 580x358.jpeg
Young photographer award 580x358.jpeg
Carbon footprint hannah jackson uk 580x358.jpeg
Terra humana kristina sereikaite china 580x358.jpeg
When the river sounds david martin huamani bedoya peru 580x358.jpeg
First prize 580x358.jpeg
Second prize 580x358.jpeg
Recycling energy 1 subodh naatu india 580x358.jpeg
Steam engine cory rosenberg france 580x358.jpeg
Sands of time romain veillon france 580x358.jpeg
Hazy axis wish of blue sky fengli yuan china 580x358.jpeg
In search of water supriya biswas india 580x358.jpeg
Rishikesh singh joginder luca italy 580x358.jpeg
Young photographer award 580x358.jpeg
Carbon footprint hannah jackson uk 580x358.jpeg
Terra humana kristina sereikaite china 580x358.jpeg

Inaugural competition attracted more than 1,000 entries, with winning photo depicting Bangladesh residents at a symbolic funeral for dried earth

A series of powerful images depicting the human cost of climate change were celebrated last night as the winners of the 2015 Photographic Award held by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

More than 1,000 photographers - amateur and professional - submitted entries to the inaugural ICC competition, centred on the theme "Our Climate". Winners were picked by a panel of judges including the UN's top climate official Christiana Figueres and renowned environmentalist David Mayer de Rothschild.

Bangladeshi photographer Huzzatul Mursalin won the top prize for An Unusual Funeral, capturing a group of people paying their respects to dried earth and dead trees on the Bangladeshi island Kutubdia. Indian photographer Bipayan Bhar won second prize with his entry The Effects of Climate Change, showing children playing in a parched landscape of cracked earth.

China's Qingshan Wang won Young Photographer of the Year for The Earth Triptych, displaying a trio of black and white close-ups of different surfaces, from a stone wall to a human hand.

John Danilovich, secretary general of the ICC and chair of the judging panel, said the judges were impressed with how the entrants captured the scale of the climate crisis. "Entries to the award powerfully captured the scale and human dimension to the climate challenge. We hope that the Award visibly demonstrates the need to take urgent action to tackle the defining issue of our time," he said.

Click through the gallery above to see the winning images and a selection of the shortlisted entries.

This article is part of BusinessGreen's Road to Paris hub, hosted in association with PwC.

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