BEIJING and GENEVA, May 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today launched POPs Hunter, its first-ever bilingual smartphone game, as part of an international campaign to promote the elimination of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) -- or #StopthePOPs -- in Geneva, Switzerland.
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are a set of hazardous pollutants created by industrial processes. They are resilient in character, infiltrating ecosystems to spread across large areas, harming human health and the environment. Signed by over 100 countries, the 2001 Stockholm Convention on POPs specifies a list of these highly toxic chemicals which signatory governments ban, seeking to reduce and eventually eliminate their production and use.
Various programmes funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by UNDP to support the Stockholm Convention have found that increased public awareness of POPs is needed to make the results of work to eliminate them more sustainable. In response, UNDP and the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office (FECO) at China's Ministry of Environmental Protection launched POPs Hunter at the Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Stockholm Convention in Geneva. The game is part of the #StopthePOPs campaign, which also includes an official POPs animation video with subtitles in eight languages.
At the campaign launch in Geneva, the Director of UNDP's Montreal Protocol/ Chemicals Unit Jacques Van Engel explained the thinking behind the game: "we don't just want the game to be a success; we see it as a springboard to getting sustained and widespread participation from the public and other stakeholders, promoting behaviour change for a cleaner and safer environment." Mr. Van Engel was joined at the launch by Li Lei, Deputy-Director General of the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection.
#StopthePOPs aims to raise the general public's awareness of these pollutants: how they are created, how they spread, and how they cause harm. The campaign asks people to share the video and game on social media, in exchange for a chance to win limited edition POPs giveaways. The campaign also celebrates progress in combating POPs worldwide.
In addition to teaching people about POPs and celebrating POPs reduction efforts around the world, the campaign hopes to encourage governments around the world to continue making progress on the issue, aspiring towards a POPs-free future for all.
One of the advance testers, a university student from Beijing, had praise for POPs Hunter: "it's an interesting game -- I really like the design and the music, and I learned from it too."
To learn more about POPs, please watch the POPs animation video and visit our campaign page.
Download the game and become a POPs Hunter.
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