For the first time in 37 years, the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the “Green Nobel,” honors an all-female group. Six women activists, six continents and one common thread: turning local environmental commitments into achievements destined to set the standard. The prize, established in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman, awards $200,000 annually to environmental leaders and has already honored 239 activists in 98 countries, including more than a hundred women.
From communities to courts
Sarah Finch‘s U.K. legal battle against new drilling led to a Supreme Court ruling in 2024 that requires an assessment of the overall climate impact of fossil fuels, including their combustion. A principle that has already affected decisions on new concessions in the North Sea, a deep coal mine-the first in more than 30 years-and other emissions-intensive projects. According to Greenpeace UK, this is “a momentous turning point” because it directly links industrial permits to global emissions: much of the impact of fossil fuels, experts remind us, comes from their combustion, not just their extraction.
Along the same lines is Borim Kim, South Korean activist and founder of Youth 4 Climate Action. Her case led the Constitutional Court to recognize that inadequate climate policies may violate the rights of future generations. It is the first youth-led decision of its kind in Asia, and it reinforces a growing strand of climate litigation that, according to several international monitors, now has hundreds of cases around the world.
Stop fossils, defend territories
In Colombia, Yuvelis Morales Blanco has turned a local protest into a national case. Growing up on the banks of the Magdalena River, she began activating after an oil spill in 2018 that killed thousands of animals and displaced many families. “We had nothing but the river: it was like a mother,” she recounted. The mobilization, amid protests and public pressure, helped stop commercial fracking projects and bring the issue to the center of Colombia’s 2022 elections.
In the United States, Alannah Acaq Hurley, a Yup’ik indigenous leader, coordinated 15 tribal nations and succeeded in blocking a large mining project in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska. The area is home to one of the largest wild salmon populations in the world, with crucial economic and food value to local communities. The case has become a landmark for the role of indigenous peoples in protecting ecosystems.
Mining, biodiversity and responsibility
The mining front is also the focus of Theonila Roka Matbob ‘s work in Papua New Guinea. Her campaign forced giant Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, to take responsibility for the environmental and social damage of the Panguna mine, closed in 1989 but still a source of contamination to soil and waterways. A relevant precedent in an industry where long-term consequences often remain unanswered.
In Nigeria, ecologist Iroro Tanshi has brought attention to a less visible crisis: the survival of the short-tailed round-leaved bat, a critically endangered species. After rediscovering it in the Afi Mountains sanctuary, she has initiated a conservation program involving local communities, including fighting fires set for agricultural or hunting activities. Work that affects both biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
An award that measures results
“True leaders are found all around us,” said John Goldman, vice president of the foundation. Since its inception, the prize has often anticipated paths later entered public policy, with winners becoming government officials, NGO leaders and, in some cases, even Nobel laureates over time. The 2026 edition highlights how local actions, when backed by legal tools, social mobilization and sound scientific foundations, pass directly affect industrial and policy decisions.
