August 4, 2026
Whether you’re brushing up on your environmental vocabulary or exploring these concepts for the first time, read on to discover five key terms shaping the environmental movement of 2026. Each term is paired with a real-world example from a Goldman Environmental Prize winner.
1. “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent”
Free, prior, and informed consent refers to the right of Indigenous communities to receive prior consultation and give or withhold their consent before projects that affect their lands or resources move forward.
This right was adopted by the United Nations in 2007 as a means of protecting Indigenous groups from human rights abuses and illegal development of their ancestral territories.
Free, prior, and informed consent has been used by numerous Goldman Prize winners to advocate for their lands. For example, in 2019, Goldman Prize winner Nemonte Nenquimo (Ecuador, 2020) and her Waorani community won a landmark case in Ecuadorian court: they noted that their right to free, prior, and informed consent was violated when the government began to auction off their lands for oil exploration.
2. “Scope 3 Emissions”
Scope 3 emissions are greenhouse gas emissions generated through the production, delivery, or use of a product. These are often the largest sources of emissions.
Scope 3 emissions are distinct from direct emissions from the business’s own operations (scope 1) or indirect emissions from purchased energy (scope 2). Rather, scope 3 emissions could include emissions generated by the distribution, processing, or use of a product (e.g., the transporting, refining, and burning of fuel).
Goldman Prize winner Sarah Finch (United Kingdom, 2026) used the concept of scope 3 emissions to argue that an oil drilling project in Surrey was unlawfully approved because its environmental review failed to take into account downstream emissions. After a five-year battle, the UK Supreme Court ruled in her favor, setting a key precedent for environmental assessment. As Sarah cleverly noted, “When you have a chocolate cake, it is not the making of the cake but the eating of it that affects your waistline.” When it comes to oil, “the burning of it is far more harmful to the climate than getting it out of the ground.”
3. “Rights of Nature”
Rights of nature is a legal framework that recognizes that ecosystems—such as rivers, forests, and wetlands—have legal rights to exist and thrive, and to be protected by laws, treaties, and regulations.
The rights of nature framework first appeared in a law review in 1972 and gradually gained traction during subsequent decades. Flash forward to 2024, and nearly 500 rights of nature laws have been enacted across 40 nations in the form of statutes, constitutional provisions, treaty agreements, and regulations. Explore more here.
In the past few years, two Goldman Prize winners have used this concept to defend local ecosystems: Teresa Vicente (Spain, 2024) stood up for the beloved Mar Menor lagoon by arguing that the ecosystem had an inherent right to be protected from pollution; and Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari (Peru, 2025) used the rights of nature doctrine to help protect Peru’s Marañón River, a cornerstone of the country’s biodiversity, economy, and Indigenous culture.
4. “Environmental Justice”
Environmental justice is the principle that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and should be protected equally from environmental harm, regardless of race, ethnicity, class, or geography.
Historically led by Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income communities in the United States, the environmental justice movement underscores the disproportionate impact of pollution, climate change, and other environmental dangers on marginalized groups. Read more about what environmental justice means and why it matters in this blog post.
A prominent environmental justice advocate today is Sharon Lavigne (United States, 2021). Sharon is a retired special education teacher and grandmother in Louisiana who held peaceful protests to stop the construction of a toxic plastics manufacturing plant in her predominantly African-American community. Today, she continues to campaign against industrial projects in her region.
5. “Biodiversity”
Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, including plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms. Healthy biodiversity helps keep ecosystems strong and resilient.
Without the vast range of biodiversity on Earth, we would not have a healthy planet. The protection of biodiversity is not just about protecting a single species or habitat; rather, it is about preserving the vitality and unique interconnectedness of life on Earth.
For example, Goldman Prize winner Randall Arauz (Costa Rica, 2010) is working to protect sharks, a mission that extends to the protection of marine biodiversity at large. By protecting sharks, an apex predator, he is in turn protecting a thriving tropical marine ecosystem throughout the entire food chain—from smaller fish to coral algae. As Randall shared, “biodiversity fosters biodiversity.”
