Six Grassroots Activists Receive 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize on April 21

Borim Kim, the winner for the Asia region, started the Youth 4 Climate Action organisation in South Korea. She won a ruling from South Korea’s Constitutional Court that the government’s climate policy violated the constitutional rights of future generations. This marked the first successful youth-led climate litigation in Asia.

Sarah Finch, the winner for the Europe region, fought oil drilling in southeastern England for more than a decade with the Weald Action Group. The UK Supreme Court issued the 'Finch ruling' in June 2024, stating that authorities must consider fossil fuels’ impacts on the global climate before granting permission to extract them.

Finch told The Times newspaper she will use her prize money to keep fighting fossil fuels.

Theonila Roka Matbob, the winner for the Islands and Island Nations region, led a campaign in Papua New Guinea that resulted in Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, agreeing to address environmental and social devastation caused by its Panguna copper mine. The mine was closed 35 years ago following an uprising.

Alannah Acaq Hurley, the winner for the North America region and from the Yup’ik nation in the United States, fought alongside 15 tribal nations to stop a copper and gold mining project in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. The project threatened ecosystems, including the largest wild salmon runs in the world.

Iroro Tanshi, the winner for the Africa region, rediscovered the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat. She has been working to save the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Nigeria from human-induced wildfires. Tanshi spoke to her team members as they set out to set traps for bats in Etankpini village in Odukpani, Cross River State, according to handout images provided to @AJEnglish.