Goldman Environmental Prize Blog

With the aftermath of super typhoon Haiyan still part of their daily lives, Filipino Catholic Church groups and civil society organizations, implored Pope Francis to take strong action on climate change during his recent visit. In a joint statement from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action (CBCP-NASSA), and the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice…

Kenyan Goldman Prize winner Ikal Angelei has dedicated her life to fighting the construction of the Gibe 3 Dam, one of Africa’s largest hydropower projects. The dam, which is being built upstream on the Omo River by the Ethiopian government, will reduce water flow to Kenya’s Lake Turkana by 70%, drastically shrinking the lake, killing…

Before New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a statewide ban on fracking last month, dozens of small towns had already banned the practice in their municipalities. Due to the local bans and existing state restrictions, 63% of the Marcellus Shale was already off limits when the statewide ban was announced, muddling the economic boon forecasted…

As our 25th Anniversary year comes to a close, we are taking the opportunity to look back at some of our favorite highlights from 2014. In March, we kicked off our official anniversary celebrations with Goldman Prize winners Kim Wasserman and Maria Gunnoe, who joined Goldman Prize Board members John and Doug Goldman for “The…

Representatives from nearly 200 countries gathered in Lima, Peru at the beginning of December for the final round of climate negotiations before the Paris Climate Summit in 2015. While some supporters applauded the negotiations as the first time all nations have agreed to reduce carbon emissions, the general consensus suggests that Lima was yet another…

Living under the constant threat of assassination, Francisco Pineda was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2011 for courageously leading a citizens’ movement that stopped a gold mine owned by OceanaGold (formerly Pacific Rim) from destroying El Salvador’s dwindling water resources and the livelihoods of rural communities throughout the country. Gold mining is notoriously damaging to…

On the 30th anniversary of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak that killed 20,000 and injured more than 150,000 in Bhopal, India, we are spotlighting 2004 Goldman Prize winners Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, who led a class action suit demanding cleanup and compensation for affected individuals. Devi Shukla lost her husband and three…

The 2014 Green Asia Forum took place October 31 – November 4, aboard the Peace & Green Boat in South Korea. As in previous years, several Goldman Prize winners were in attendance, including MC Mehta, Von Hernandez and Pisit Charnsnoh. Yul Choi, 1995 Goldman Prize winner and president of the Korea Green Foundation, the forum’s…

2002 Goldman Prize recipient Fatima Jibrell recently hosted a funder’s briefing at the Goldman Prize office in San Francisco to educate potential donors about the recent work of her organization Adeso (formerly Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization). Jibrell founded Adesso in the early 1990’s after civil war and famine broke out in Somalia…

The work of 2014 Goldman Prize winner Rudi Putra is featured in a report released by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) earlier this week. The report, titled “The Last Place on Earth, Exposing Threats to the Leuser Ecosystem: A Global Biodiversity Hotspot Deserving Protection,” details the dire threats facing Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem. The report describes the…