The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has selected Frank Niepold, CPO Climate Education Coordinator and co-chair of the leadership board for the CPO-supported Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), as a winner of the Friend of the Planet award for 2020. Other 2020 recipients include Jacquelyn Gill, Associate Professor of Paleoecology and Plant Ecology at the University of Maine and co-host of the "Warm Regards'' podcast, and Spencer Weart, the physicist-turned-historian who wrote the book The Discovery of Global Warming (2003; revised edition, 2008) and its constantly updated online companion.

NCSE's executive director Ann Reid remarked, "Frank Niepold has been a truly indispensable part of practically every important climate education effort in the United States over the last two decades." This is the second time Frank has received the Friend of the Planet award. In 2017, CLEAN won the award for providing a curated collection of resources on climate and energy science and coordinating a professionally diverse network of climate change education stakeholders. Ann Reid explained, "CLEAN is the single best resource for teachers out there.”

The Friend of the Planet awards are presented annually to a select few whose efforts to support NCSE and advance its goal of defending the teaching of evolution and climate science have been truly outstanding. Previous recipients of the Friend of the Planet Award include Richard Alley, Naomi Oreskes, and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.