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Climate & Energy

Fighting for the sustainability of our planet

Our planet is changing at an unprecedented rate.

Melting ice caps, wildfires, floods, droughts, and other intensifying weather patterns are regional symptoms of a warming planet. Established science is clear: climate trends over the past century are indisputably caused by human activities. The extraction and burning of fossil fuels to power modern societies has resulted in the preeminent challenge of our time: climate change.

We are the first generation to experience that our actions have had consequences for our climate. We are probably the last generation that can still do something about it.

Slovakia, 2016
Zuzana Čaputová

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Goldman Prize Winners awarded for Climate & Energy

Murrawah Maroochy Johnson

2024 Goldman Prize Winner
Climate & Energy
Islands & Island Nations
Australia

Murrawah Maroochy Johnson blocked development of the Waratah coal mine, which would have accelerated climate change in Queensland, destroyed the nearly 20,000-acre Bimblebox Nature Refuge, added 1.58 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere over its lifetime, and threatened Indigenous rights and culture. Murrawah’s case, which overcame a 2023 appeal, set a precedent that enables other First Nations people to challenge coal projects by linking climate change to human and Indigenous rights.


Andrea Vidaurre

2024 Goldman Prize Winner
Climate & Energy
North America
United States

Andrea Vidaurre’s grassroots leadership persuaded the California Air Resources Board to adopt, in the spring of 2023, two historic transportation regulations that significantly limit trucking and rail emissions. The new regulations—the In-Use Locomotive Rule and the California Advanced Clean Fleets Rule—include the nation’s first emission rule for trains and a path to 100% zero emissions for freight truck sales by 2036. The groundbreaking regulations—a product of Andrea’s policy work and community organizing—will substantially improve air quality for millions of Californians while accelerating the country’s transition to zero-emission vehicles.


Tero Mustonen

Tero Mustonen

2023 Goldman Prize Winner
Climate & Energy
Europe
Finland

Since April 2018, Tero Mustonen led the restoration of 62 severely degraded former industrial peat mining and forestry sites throughout Finland—totaling 86,000 acres—and transformed them into productive, biodiverse wetlands and habitats. Rich in organic matter, peatlands are highly effective carbon sinks; according to the IUCN, peatlands are the largest natural carbon stores on Earth. Roughly one-third of Finland’s surface area is made up of peatlands.


Marjan Minnesma

Marjan Minnesma

2022 Goldman Prize Winner
Climate & Energy
Europe
The Netherlands

In a groundbreaking victory, Marjan Minnesma leveraged public input and a unique legal strategy to secure a successful ruling against the Dutch government, requiring it to enact specific preventive measures against climate change. In December 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the government had a legal obligation to protect its citizens from climate change and ordered it, by the end of 2020, to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25% below 1990 levels. The Netherlands’ Supreme Court decision marks the first time that citizens succeeded in holding their government accountable for its failure to protect them from climate change.


Julien Vincent

2022 Goldman Prize Winner
Climate & Energy
Islands & Island Nations
Australia

Julien Vincent led a successful grassroots campaign to defund coal in Australia, a major coal exporter, culminating in commitments from the nation’s four largest banks to end funding for coal projects by 2030. Because of Julien’s activism, Australia’s major insurance companies have also agreed to cease underwriting new coal projects. His organizing has produced a challenging financial landscape for the Australian coal industry, a significant step toward reducing fossil fuels that hasten climate change.


Kimiko Hirata

2021 Goldman Prize Winner
Climate & Energy
Islands & Island Nations
Japan

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011, Japan was forced to move away from nuclear power and, in its place, embraced coal as a major energy source. Over the past several years, Kimiko Hirata’s grassroots campaign led to the cancellation of 13 coal power plants (7GW or 7,030MW) in Japan. These coal plants would have released more than 1.6 billion tons of CO2 over their lifetimes. The carbon impact of Hirata’s activism is the equivalent of taking 7.5 million passenger cars off the road every year for 40 years.


Partners in Climate & Energy

The Goldman Prize is honored to partner with a variety of environmental organizations around the world, each of them united in the goal of protecting our planet. From our nominating partners to global organizations to grassroots NGOs led by Prize winners, they are all essential parts of the environmental community.

  • 350.org logo
  • Climate Reality Project logo
  • Sunrise Project logo
  • NRDC logo
  • Climate Works Foundation logo
  • Equation Campaign logo
  • Urgewald logo
  • GreenID logo
  • Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs logo
  • Reclaim Finance logo