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The Goldman Environmental Prize honors ordinary people who take extraordinary actions to protect our planet.

Meet the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners

Each year, the Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded to grassroots environmental champions from around the world.

Meet the Winners

2022 Goldman Prize Winner Spotlight

Nalleli Cobo

Environmental Justice
North America
United States

Nalleli led a community coalition to close a toxic oil well in South Los Angeles. She went on to push the city to ban new oil extraction and phase out existing sites.

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33 Years of Impact

$28M

awarded in Prize funding

213

awards given to date

93

countries represented

95

female Prize winners

Our grantmaking, networking, communications, and security programs provide ongoing support to past and current Prize winners.

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Addressing the World’s Most Pressing Environmental Challenges

We recognize individuals who are fighting on the frontlines of the greatest environmental issues of our time. Prize winners protect endangered ecosystems and species, combat destructive industries and developments, promote sustainable and environmentally friendly policies, and push for environmental justice.

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Honoring grassroots heroes

Watch the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Award Ceremony

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On our blog

Prize Winners Today: How Azzam Alwash is Restoring Iraq’s Ancient Marshes

November 1, 2022 – By Ellen Lomonico

The Cradle of Civilization Azzam Alwash was finishing a workout when he joined our video call. Full of energy and laughing, he pounded up the stairs to a rooftop deck and wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead as he held his phone in front of him. The setting sun illuminated the skyline behind…

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Prize Winners Today: How Makoma Lekalakala is Shaping South Africa’s Clean Energy Transition

October 4, 2022 – By Ellen Lomonico

Meeting Environmental Justice Leader, Makoma Lekalakala Dressed in vibrant colors and a traditional VhaVenda headscarf, Makoma Lekalakala is a striking figure, even on a pixelated computer screen. It was nighttime in South Africa; Makoma joined our call having recently flown into Durban. “I go where the people are,” she shared. Sometimes that means Johannesburg, sometimes…

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Goldman Prize Winners Call for Release of Nguy Thi Khanh

September 13, 2022

Today, 52 Goldman Environmental Prize winners sent a letter to the members of the UN Human Rights Council in support of Nguy Thi Khanh, the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize winner from Vietnam. Khanh is serving a two-year prison sentence in Vietnam for the alleged crime of tax evasion, widely understood as punishment for being an…

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