The 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners - all Women!
- rutlandliving
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
The winners of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize have been announced, celebrating six grassroots climate activists from across the globe. For the first time in the Prize’s history, all six of the 2026 winners are women.
About The Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize was founded in 1989 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman, as they wanted to reward activists and inspire others to join the fight for climate justice. The prize, “honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world, inspiring all of us to take action to protect our planet.” By “grassroots,” they mean, “those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation.”[1]
The winners are announced at an annual live award ceremony at the San Francisco Opera House in California, which coincides with Earth Day. There is also a smaller, more intimate ceremony for the winners only, which is held in Washington D.C. At the winner’s ceremony, they are presented with a bronze sculpture of an Ouroboros, a serpent biting its tail, a powerful symbol of nature’s power of renewal.
To date, The Goldman Environmental Prize have honored 233 environmental activists, from 98 different countries. To see the previous winners of the award, click here.
The 2026 Winners
This year’s Goldman Prize winners are Sarah Finch from England, Alannah Acaq Hurley from the United States, Borim Kim from South Korea, Yuvelis Morales Blanco from Colombia, Theonila Roka Matbob from Papua New Guinea, and Iroro Tanshi from Nigeria. All six women are inspirational leaders and activists, each one having had a significant impact on environmental change both in their communities and beyond.
Alannah Acaq Hurley, United States
Alannah Acaq Hurley led a campaign on behalf of fifteen tribal nations to prevent a Pebble Mine megaproject in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. Bristol Bay includes 25 million acres of wilderness, rivers, and wetlands and home to the largest wild salmon runs in the world. The bay would have been decimated by the proposed mining expedition, which would have caused 10 billion tons of mining waste over the mine’s lifetime, 35 billion gallons of freshwater being removed every year from salmon spawning rivers and severe damage to nearly 100 miles of streams and 2,100 acres of wetlands.
Borim Kim, South Korea
31-year-old climate activist and founder of Youth 4 Climate Action Borim Kim successfully campaigned for the first youth-led climate legislation in Asia. Following Kim’s campaign, the South Korean Constitutional Court voted to change the government’s climate policy, and implemented emissions reduction targets, ensuring that the country will achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
