The 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize winners are all women. | Photo courtesy of Goldman Environmental Foundation
For the first time in its 37-year history, six women have received the prominent Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots environmental activism. They are:
• Sarah Finch from England, who, along with Weald Action Group, led an effort that resulted in a historic UK Supreme Court ruling requiring fossil fuel projects to map their full climate impact.
• Alannah Acaq Hurley from the United States. Hurley helped organize 15 tribal nations, Alaskans and NGOs to persuade the EPA to veto what would have been North America’s largest open-pit mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.
• South Korea’s Borim Kim, who led the drive to mandate significant reductions in emissions. It was Asia’s first youth-led constitutional climate victory.
• Yuvelis Morales Blanco, who led the effort against two drilling projects in Colombia.
• Theonila Roka Matbob of Papa New Guinea, who led a campaign to force mining company Rio Tinto to take responsibility for decades of environmental harm.
• Nigeria’s Iroro Tanshi, who built a community-led wildfire prevention system.
The Goldman Environmental Foundation notes that the first all-women roster of honorees is “a testament to the critical role of women in the environmental movement,” adding that women and girls often assume the role of caretaker in response to disasters.
One winner is selected from each of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island nations, North America and South and Central America. Winners are announced every April in conjunction with Earth Day, which is April 22. The winners were honored in San Francisco April 20.
“While we continue to fight uphill to protect the environment and implement lifesaving climate policies — in the U.S. and globally — it is clear that true leaders can be found all around us,” said John Goldman, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation.
“I am especially thrilled to honor our first-ever cohort of six women, as this is a powerful reflection of the absolutely central role that women play in the environmental community globally.”
The Goldman Environmental Prize was founded in 1989 by San Francisco philanthropists Rhoda and Richard Goldman. Since then, it has honored 239 activists, including 112 women, from 98 nations.
Previous winners include Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement for tree-planting across Kenya and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024; Aleta Baun, who led Indigenous women in a years-long protest against mining and was globally recognized for nonviolent resistance tactics; and Nemonte Nenquimo, who led an Indigenous campaign to preserve 500,000 acres of Amazonian rainforest from oil extraction.
