Recognizing the Champions of the Earth | Environmental Awards and Prizes

Global Flagship Environmental Awards

Recognizing broad, cross-cutting contributions to environmental protection, sustainability, and environmental leadership.

UNEP Champions of the Earth

Considered the UN’s highest environmental honor, the Champions of the Earth Award has been given annually since 2005. Through this award, UNEP honors individuals and organizations working on innovative and sustainable solutions to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

The 2026 nominations deadline was 15 April 2026. This year the award is seeking individuals, organizations, and governments at the forefront of protecting and restoring ocean health.

In 2025, UNEP sought nominations from individuals and organizations whose work strengthens climate resilience and contributes to mitigation solutions. The 2025 Champions of the Earth, announced on 10 December at the 7th UN Environment Assembly, highlight bold climate and environmental action across the awards’ five categories.

• Science & Innovation: Imazon (Brazil) – a non-profit research institute which has developed AI deforestation prediction models that inform and help law enforcement protect the Amazon rainforest, while promoting sustainable economic growth.
• Lifetime Achievement: Manfredi Caltagirone (posthumous) – Former head of UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, Mr. Caltagirone championed transparency and science-based action on methane, influencing the EU’s first regulation on methane emissions and shaping global energy policy.
• Entrepreneurial Vision: Mariam Issoufou (Sahel) – By grounding her architecture in local materials and cultural heritage, Ms. Issoufou is redefining sustainable, climate-resilient buildings across the Sahel and inspiring a new generation of designers shaping Africa’s built environment. Through projects like the Hikma Community Complex in Niger, she pioneers passive cooling techniques that keep buildings up to 10°C cooler without air conditioning.
• Policy Leadership: Pacific Island students fighting climate change – A youth-led NGO that secured a landmark opinion from the International Court of Justice affirming states’ legal obligations to prevent climate harm and protect human rights, their campaign is reshaping global climate law and empowering vulnerable nations.
• Inspiration & Action: Supriza Sahu (Inida) – A pioneer in sustainable cooling and ecosystem restoration, Ms. Sahu’s initiatives have created 2.5 million green jobs, expanded forest cover, and integrated heat adaptation into infrastructure, benefiting 12 million people and setting a model for climate resilience.

Earth Shot Prize

Launched in 2020 by Prince William and supported by a global network of philanthropists and partners, the Earthshot Prize seeks out bold, scalable solutions to the world’s most urgent environmental challenges. Each year until 2030, five winners, one per Earthshot category, are awarded £1 million to grow and replicate their work. The Prize aims to accelerate real-world change in areas from nature restoration to clean air, oceans, waste reduction, and climate action.

At the 2025 Awards Ceremony, held on 5 November in Rio de Janeiro, the following winners were announced

• Protect & Restore Nature: re.green (Brazil) – A forest-restoration program that uses AI and satellite data to identify degraded land in the Amazon and Atlantic Forests and reforest it, while protecting biodiversity and supporting local communities.
• Clean Our Air: City of Bogotá, Colombia – Recognized for strong clean-air policy and action, tackling air pollution and improving air quality for millions of residents.
• Revive Our Oceans: High Seas Treaty (Global) – A global agreement for ocean protection, offering a framework for safeguarding marine ecosystems beyond national waters, helping achieve the global goal of safeguarding 30% of the ocean by 2030.
• Build a Waste-Free World: Lagos Fashion Week (Nigeria) – Promotes sustainable, craft-based fashion across Africa, challenging fast fashion and reducing textile waste while reviving local craftsmanship.
• Fix Our Climate: Friendship (Bangladesh) – Friendship protects vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, combining vital services like healthcare and education with climate resilience projects that save lives, restore ecosystems, and create opportunity.

The 2026 Earthshot Prize Summit will be held in Mumbai, India in November.

Time 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders

The TIME100 Climate list recognizes each year 100 individuals from around the world whose leadership, business decisions, scientific work, or advocacy are having significant, measurable impact on the climate crisis.

The 2025 TIME100 Climate list reflects a moment when business leaders,  decision-makers, researchers and innovators, and civil-society actors are stepping forward to compensate for political inertia, mobilizing capital, influencing markets, shaping regulation, and delivering solutions

The list recognizes leaders in 5 categories: Titans, Innovators, Leaders, Defenders and Catalysts.

2025 Selected Climate Leaders include:

• Richard Thompson – Marine biologist honored under the « Innovators » category for his decades of pioneering research and advocacy exposing the global scale and impacts of plastic pollution, which has been pivotal to efforts to protect the ocean and the planet.

• Sonam Wangchuk –  honored under the “Defenders” category for his pioneering work with Himalayan “ice-stupas” (artificial glaciers) to secure seasonal water for remote mountain communities, a climate-adaptation innovation for vulnerable regions.

• Kathy Hochul – Governor of New York recognized for policies reducing emissions, promoting green infrastructure and sustainable mobility (e.g., congestion-pricing in New York City), and championing urban climate resilience in a major global city.

• Yann Quilcaille – post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich for his groundbreaking analysis linking the world’s 180 largest fossil-fuel and cement companies to roughly half of historical carbon emissions, a critical study that sharpened the focus on corporate responsibility.

Find the full 2025 list here

World Economic Forum – Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) Awards

Started in 2025, the GAEA is an awards scheme launched to recognize and accelerate cross-sector collaborations and public, private and philanthropic partnerships delivering scalable, systems-level solutions to climate, nature and biodiversity challenges. Rather than awarding individual actors, the GAEA Awards spotlight collaborations that mobilize capital, innovation and governance across sectors, catalyzing transformation at the scale required for the planetary crisis.

The 2026 GAEA Awards honored groundbreaking partnerships across five categories which will be presented at the WEF’s annual Davos meeting in January 2026.

• Bridging Evidence to Action: The Lancet  Countdown on Health and Climate Change – A global collaboration of 300+ scientists from 100 institutions worldwide, the Lancet Countdown draws on world-leading science to track the evolving links between climate change and health. Its data informs COP negotiations and national health strategies, with 2400+ policy citations.
• Enabling Innovation Breakthroughs: Plastics Pact Network – Uniting 900+ organizations across 19 countries, this network is building a circular economy for plastics. Together, its national and regional Pacts have eliminated 33 billion single-use items, redesigned 850,000 tonnes of packaging, and improved livelihoods for waste workers worldwide
• Unlocking Capital at Scale: Sustainable Sovereign Debt Hub – Transforming the $92 trillion sovereign debt market by embedding climate and nature resilience into finance. Through tools and partnerships with governments and investors, it has enabled countries like Slovenia and Côte d’Ivoire to issue sustainability-linked bonds and debt-for-development swaps – building a fairer, resilient financial architecture for the future.
• Moving Business for Climate Impact: Canopy Partnering with 1,000+ brands worth US $2.1 trillion in revenue, Canopy is transforming the paper, packaging and textile industries.  By scaling circular “Next Generation” materials made from agricultural and textile waste, it has protected 16.6 million hectares of forests and catalyzed US $78 billion in investment potential – proof that business collaboration can drive systemic change.
• Empowering Voices to Shape Action: Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) – In Gujarat, India, SEWA through its Building Cleaner Skies Campaign is enabling thousands of low-income women salt-farmers to lead a clean energy transition. By transitioning to clean, green solar pumps, undergoing training on Solar PV and by designing and forging innovative financial partnerships, poor grassroots women have become solar engineers and entrepreneurs, cutting 18900+ tonnes of CO2 annually and raising incomes by up to 500%

Right Livelihood Awards

Established in 1980 by philanthropist Jakob von Uexküll and often referred to as the « Alternative Nobel Prize », the Right Livelihood Award honors individuals and organizations offering practical, courageous and long-term solutions to the world’s most urgent problems, from environmental protection and climate justice to human rights, peace, sustainable development and social justice.

2025 Laureates Related to the Environment

• Julian Aguon shared with the Pacific Island Student Fighting Climate Change – for carrying the call for climate justice to the world’s highest court, turning survival into a matter of rights and climate action into a legal responsibility

The nomination deadline for the Right Livelihood Award was 30 January 2026.

Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement

The Tyler Prize, established in 1973, was the first award recognizing achievements in environment science. It honors individuals or organizations worldwide for their groundbreaking work in environmental science, policy, health and energy. The laureates represent a diverse group of thought leaders, researchers, advocates whose contributions have made a lasting impact on addressing the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

2026 Laureate:

• Dr. Toby Kiers – recognized for her pioneering research into underground fungal network and their critical role in sustaining life on Earth. As co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), she has helped mobilize a global movement to map, protect, and celebrate life beneath our feet.

Nominations for the 2027 Tyler Prize closed on 15 May 2026.

Blue Planet Prize

The Blue Planet Prize, established by the Asahi Glass Foundation, honors individuals or organizations whose scientific research or practical work has made a major contribution to solving global environmental problems, from climate change to biodiversity, ecosystem health, and human-environment interactions. Each year, two laureates are selected for their long-term, high-impact contributions. Nominations are solicited between August and October each year.

2025 Laureates:

• Professor Robert B. Jackson – an expert on the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems, including forests, grasslands and wetland. Recognized for his pioneering research on the relationship between soil, vegetation, and soil bacterial communities.  In addition, he has quantified the balance of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, from natural ecosystems and from fossil fuel use and since 2017, has served as the chair of the Global Carbon Project.
• Dr. Jeremy Leggett – the inaugural chairman of the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI), introduced the concept of the « carbon bubble, » highlighting the economic risks associated with fossil fuel assets. Through CTI’s activities, he influenced investors and policymakers, advancing the divestment movement. In addition, as a practical effort to balance economic activity with environmental conservation, he founded one of the UK’s leading solar energy companies.

The 2026 laureates will be announced in mid June 2026.

Frontiers Planet Prize

The Frontiers Planet Prize recognizes transformational research that shows the greatest potential to address the world’s most urgent environmental challenges.  Each year three international champions win 1 million USD to accelerate and scale up the impact of their breakthrough research.

The 2025 International Champions of the 3rd edition of the Frontiers Planet Prize were announced in June at the Villars Symposium’s Awards Ceremony.

• Dr. Arunima Malik (University of Sydney, Australia) – recognized for her work on « Polarizing and equalizing trends in international trade and Sustainable Development Goals« .
• Prof. Zahra Kalantari (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) – recognized for her work on « Contribution of prioritized urban nature-based solutions allocation to carbon neutrality« 
• Dr. Zia Mehrabi (University of Colorado Boulder, United States) – recognized for his work on « Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture« 

The 2026 International Champions of the prize will be announced in June at the Villars Symposium.

See here for the full list of 2026 National Champions.

• Switzerland: Dr. Liangzhi Chen « Global increase in the occurence and impact of multiyear droughts« 

Zayed Sustainability Prize

Since 2008, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has been empowering global changemakers, recognizing their innovative sustainability solutions and amplifying their transformative impact. The prize recognizes drivers for change in 6 categories: health, food, energy, water, climate action and global high schools.

Nominations for the 2027 prize will close in June 2026 and be announced in January 2027.

2026 Winners:

• Food: N&E Innovations – an SME from Singapore that creates upcycled, biodegradable antimicrobial sprays and packaging that extend food shelf life and reduce waste, upcycling over 2 tonnes of food waste into 400’000 plus units and reaching 80’000 people across seven countries.
• Energy: BASE Foundation – an NPO from Switzerland which promotes a cooling-as-a-service model that makes clean cooling technologies more accessible through a pay-per-use approach, benefiting 160’000 people, creating 2’500 jobs, and abating over 81’000 tonnes of CO2 across 68 countries.
• Water: Stattus 4 – an SME from Brazil that develops AI-powered IoT solutions that detect leaks in water distribution networks, saving 540 million liters of water daily across 250 municipalities, improving water availability for nearly 4 million people.
• Climate Action: Build up Nepal – an NPO form Nepal that develops earthquake-resilient eco-bricks that support sustainable construction, benefitting more than 58’000 people, empowering 200 entrepreneurs, and abating over 110’000 tonnes of CO2.
• Global High Schools (The Americas):Mamawi Atosketan Native School, a public school in Canada with 250 students aims to establish a year-round hydroponic farm producing over 2’600 pounds of vegetables annually which will form part of a for-credit agriculture programme integrating indigenous values and sustainability science.
• Global High Schools (Sub-Saharan Africa): Kyanja High School, a private school in Uganda with 431 students, proposes the design and build of a circular farming system that integrates duck shelters and fishponds to produce fish and eggs through zero-waste nutrient cycle.
• Global High Schools (Middle East & North Africa): Al Rajaa School for the Deaf, a private school in Jordan with 147 students, aims to develop an inclusive environmental project by installing a rainwater harvesting and greywater treatment system, a recycling unit, 3 hydroponic units, and delivering sign language learning content. Produce will be sold through a community e-market.
• Global High Schools (Europe & Central Asia): Bodrum Anatolian High School a public school in Türkiye with 565 students, aims to implement an AI-powered wildfire prevention system leveraging drones equipped with thermal sensors to detect fires and boron capsules to suppress fires in real-time, providing rapid response and fire data tracking.
• Global High Schools (South Asia):  Faafu Atoll Education Center, a public school in Maldives with 570 students, aims to transform the school into a sustainability hub with solar and wind energy, expanded rainwater harvesting, clean water systems, hydroponics, and bamboo innovation.
• Global High Schools (East Asia and Pacific): Ruamrudee International School, a private school in Thailand with 1’200 students, aims to build a sensor system that tracks water levels and GPS data to help farmers meet carbon credit requirements with Alternate Wetting and Drying cultivation, a water-saving and methane-reducing rice cultivation method.

Heroes of Tomorrow – UN SDG Action Awards

The UN SDG Action Awards are powered by the UN SDG Action Campaign,  a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, hosted by UNDP. The Heroes of Tomorrow are people taking bold action, often working quietly against the odds to build a sustainable, just, and peaceful future.

The 2026 edition categories are:

• Changemaker Award: individuals leading collective action towards justice, equality, and peace. Successful Changemakers demonstrate visionary leadership and the ability to make measurable, lasting impact within their communities and beyond.
• Creativity Award: initiatives that inspire hope and action through visual expression, art, innovation and more. Successful initiatives demonstrate how creativity drives measurable impact by inspiring action, shifting behaviours or public perceptions, and/or influencing policy.
• Resilience Award: initiatives building resilience in the face of conflicts, inequalities, or climate change. Successful initiatives demonstrate adaptability, perseverance, and tangible results in overcoming environmental, economic, political, or social challenges to build more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable societies

The application deadline was 17 May 2026. The winners will be announced on 29 October 2026 at the Awards Ceremony in Rome.

Nature, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Restoration Awards

Honoring achievements in conservation, ecosystem recovery, and nature-positive development.

UN – World Restoration Flagships

With the World Restoration Flagships, the UN is honoring the best examples of large-scale and long-term ecosystem restoration in any country or region, embodying the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade.

2025 Initiatives Recognized:

• Shellfish Reef Building Program (Australia): Since this initiative’s launch, it has helped remove nearly 15 tonnes of nutrient pollution, boost fish stocks, and has achieved significant biodiversity gains whilst generating over 425 jobs.
• Respectful Returns (Canada):  Since 2010, Parks Canada has collaborated with Indigenous Peoples and local communities on the Respectful Returns initiative, which focuses on restoring damaged rivers and streams in seven national parks along Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts. The project has helped restore over 65’000 hectares of land and created more than 100 jobs.
• Thicket Restoration (South Africa): Thicket Restoration in South Africa unites over 60 initiatives across Eastern and Western Cape. The initiative aims to restore 800,000 ha by 2030.
• Bamboo-based Restoration: Across nine countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, bamboo is being harnessed as a fast-growing, sustainable plant for land restoration, reversing the impacts of intense agriculture, logging, demand for fuelwood and charcoal and climate change.
• Collaborative Rangelands Restoration (Jordan): Tel al-Rumman, north of Amman, is an open mountainous forest area, which had been severely degraded due to illegal overgrazing. The Royal Botanic Gardens is now working together with traditional herders on reviving sustainable practices.
• The Restoration Initiative: The Restoration Initiative is designed to translate global restoration goals to local contexts by boosting local restoration economies, such as nurseries, training smallholder farmers and pastoralists, removing invasive species and informing government policies.
• Revitalizing Korea’s Forests From Fire (Republic of Korea): This initiative is restoring the country’s valuable forests while prioritizing community livelihoods and post-fire resilience. The entire fire-damaged area is expected to be restored by 2030.
• Comprehensive Island Restoration (Mexico): A restoration initiative launched to reverse the negative impacts of invasive species and revitalize the unique ecosystem of Mexico’s seabird Islands.
• Restoring the Northern Mozambique Channel Region: As part of the efforts to manage, protect and restore the coral-rich Northern Mozambique Channel, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania are working together to restore blue and green forests.
• Ecosystems Restoration in Mar Menor (Spain): The Spanish Government launched an ambitious intervention, aimed at restoring the natural dynamics and solving the problem from the source.

Ramsar Wetland Conservation Awards

Established in 1996, the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Awards celebrate and recognize individuals and organizations for contributions towards promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands. Award recipients receive the Evian Special Prize of USD 10,000 provided by Danone.

The 2025 winners were approved at the 64th meeting of the Standing Committee in January 2025 and will be honored at the 15h Meeting of the Conference of Contracting Parties (COP 15) in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

• Innovation Award: Laura Gonzalez – executive director of Marea Verde, was recognized for her organizations groundbreaking approach to tackling plastic pollution. They have created a first-of-its-kind river-based waste capture system deployed in Panama’s Juan Díaz River in 2022. In just over two years, the Wanda system has prevented more than 540,000 pounds of waste and plastic from reaching Panama Bay, a Wetland of International Importance.
• Young Wetland Champion Award: Iman Ebrahimi – recognized for the work of the NGO he founded in Iran dedicated to wetland conservation, Avaye Boom Bird Conservation Society. His work focuses on fostering community engagement and environmental stewardship, he has led six national projects and trained over 4’000 individuals in conservation practices.
• Indigenous Peoples Conservation and Wise Use Award: Dayana Blanco Quiroga – recognized for her leadership in restoring Lake Uru Uru. Through championing the integration of Indigenous Knowledge with modern environmental science, rallying her community and using nature-based solutions, she has revived aquatic life while enhancing the resilience of local communities against climate change.

Stockholm Water Prize

Inspired by the Nobel tradition, the Stockholm Water Prize is the most prestigious international award for water. The Prize has been presented every year since 1991 and has honored scientists, practitioners, and organizations whose contributions have advanced water science and protection. Laureates have delivered groundbreaking discoveries and developed transformative solutions that address global water challenges.

2026 Laureate:

• Kaveh Madani – The Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), has been recognized for his groundbreaking research and global leadership that have transformed how governments manage water crises. His work has shifted the focus of global water debates from infrastructure to governance and demonstrated how weak governance structures often lie at the heart of severe water crises.

2025 Laureate:

• Professor Günter Blöschl – honored for his world-renowned work on flood risk reduction, water resource management, flood scaling, and regional process hydrology. He has contributed to global research on flood estimation, scaling, and adaptation strategies which has led to the construction of a flood database that analyzed the patterns and scales of flood movements over the span of 500 years.

The nominations for the 2027 Stockholm Water Prize are open on 18 March 2026.

UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Conservation

Established in 1991, the UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Conservation is a biennial award recognizing outstanding contributions by individuals, groups of individuals, institutes or organizations in the  management or preservation of the environment. It consists of a diploma and a financial reward of US$100,000 and it is awarded during the World Science Forum.

Nominations for the 2025 edition are now open and the deadline is 15 June 2026.

2024 Laureate

• Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) – a non-profit organization established in 2003 which operates environmental education centers in and around the NamibRand Nature Reserve. The Centre’s immersive, hands-on programs work with adults and children to build sustainable practices, including solar cooking, water conservation, and recycling.  NaDEET has also played a key role in shaping Namibia’s environmental policies. From 2017-2019, NaDEET was a lead organization in the drafting and finalization of the Namibian National Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development (EE/ESD) Policy, the first stand-along policy of its kind in southern Africa.

UNESCO MAB Michel Batisse Award for Biosphere Reserve Management

• Mr Shu Zufei from China’s Chebaling Biosphere Reserve – a protected-area manager since 2002 and now a professorate senior engineer, is honored for a decade of field-tested innovation in the Chebaling Biosphere Reserve, now a national model for tech-enabled conservation and community stewardship. He led a technological leap that included infrared camera networks, wireless data transmission stations, and AI-powered cloud platforms to automatically detect and identify species.  Local villagers, drawing on deep knowledge of the forest, were trained to install devices, maintain equipment, and support field surveys.

Future for Nature Award

The Future For Nature Award is a prestigious international award that celebrates tangible achievements in protecting wild species. The winners each receive 50’oo0 euros to support the continuation and scaling up of their important work.

2026 Winners

• Dayana Blanco Quiroga is an Indigenous Aymara woman who mobilized her community to restore Lake Uru Uru and protect Chilean, Andean and James’s flamingos amon other species in Bolivia. By planting 6’000 native totora plants, a natural water purifier, she and her team have restored 10km of shoreline. Ongoing monitoring confirms the return of all three flamingo species, marking a remarkable milestone in ecosystem recovery.
• Michele Marina Kameni Ngalieu is protecting endangered frogs from habitat loss, bad reputations, and pollution in Cameroon. She founded her country’s first female-led herpetological NGO and promotes eco-friendly farming to reduce habitat deterioration. By working closely together with local communities, she raises awareness about the importance of wildlife conservation while fostering sustainable practices that safeguard Cameroon’s rich herpetofauna diversity for future generations.
• Olabisi Atofarati is safeguarding Nigeria’s endemic freshwater Killifish fom overharvesting and extinction. As a conservation biologist who combines science with powerful storytelling, she previously advanced protection for the endangered redline pufferfish and now leads initiatives focused on conserving vulnerable Scheeli killifish, strengthening awareness and action to protect Nigeria’s unique aquatic biodiversity.

The award ceremony took place at Royal Burger Zoo in the Netherlands on 8 May 2026. You can follow the livestream here.

Future Conservationist Award

The Future Conservationist Award, offered by the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP), supports teams of early-career conservationists undertaking hands-on projects to protect threatened species and habitats. Winners receive a project grant of up to USD 15,000, plus access to training, mentorship and CLP’s global alumni network. Projects must be community-linked, scientifically grounded, and implemented by teams of early-career professionals (with no more than five years of experience) working in biodiverse, under-resourced regions.

2025 winners include:

• Conservation of endangered migratory bird species within the East Atlantic Flyway: A project focused on conserving critically important coastal wetlands and migratory bird populations along the East Atlantic Flyway, strengthening habitat protection and community engagement.
• Guardians of the Sucre Water Frog: Building a New Generation of Conservationists: A team working to protect the Sucre water frog, a species experiencing sharp declines, while training and empowering a new cadre of local conservation leaders.
• Protecting hornbills from consumption-driven extinction in Kalimantan, Indonesia: A project that combines local knowledge with active field interventions to conserve culturally important hornbill species threatened by hunting pressures.

For full project list, click here.

Deadline for 2026 applications was 9 January 2026.

Climate Action Awards

Recognizing efforts that support climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and climate justice.

Keeling Curve Prize

Named in honor of the groundbreaking Keeling Curve, the Keeling Curve Prize (KCP) recognizes and supports innovative climate solutions that aim to bend the Keeling Curve downward, ultimately reducing the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases. This prize acknowledges projects and initiatives from around the globe that are making significant strides in addressing climate change, promoting sustainability, and advancing decarbonization efforts.

The 2025 Laureates were announced at the TED Countdown Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, awarding $50’000 to each project.

Carbon Sinks – projects accelerating carbon capture through nature-based and engineered solutions.

• Carbon Upcycling Technologies, Inc. (Canada): Carbon Upcycling’s CUT CO2 System strengthens construction supply chains by localizing critical material manufacturing. The technology transforms CO2 and industrial byproducts into an abundant and local source of cement materials with a lower carbon footprint
• Octavia Carbon (Kenya): Octavia Carbon is the first Direct Air Capture (DAC) company in the Global South. Their DAC technology removes CO₂ from the air for safe storage or conversion into climate-neutral carbon products. Using Kenya’s renewable energy, geology, and talent, they aim to lower DAC costs and advance global decarbonization.

Energy – projects advancing clean, affordable, and scalable energy systems

• Gham Power Nepal (Nepal): Founded during Nepal’s energy crisis, Gham Power began with solar solutions for load shedding. Now with 4,000+ projects, they combine solar tech and innovative financing to deliver clean, reliable energy, empowering rural communities, reducing emissions, and supporting sustainable development.
• Kraftblock (Germany): Kraftblock’s high-temp thermal storage captures surplus clean energy when high renewable output strains the grid, helping decarbonize industry and power systems. Made from upcycled materials, their system is long-lasting, affordable, and scales fast – cutting costs and unlocking over twice the renewable energy per MW stored. 

Finance – projects mobilizing financial innovation to drive climate action.

• Topo Finance (USA): Topo Finance taps into treasury management to drive climate action. As a leader in climate-aligned finance, they help shift trillions toward decarbonization. In 2024, they worked with organizations managing over $500 billion, guiding them to align cash stewardship with long-term planetary impact.
• Terraformation (USA): Terraformation restores native forests through a model that supports profit, people, and the planet. By channeling carbon finance to underserved tropical communities, they help make biodiverse reforestation profitable –  leveraging local knowledge to regenerate degraded forests across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Social & Cultural Pathways – projects shifting behaviors, values, and policies to support a post-fossil fuel future.

• SXD (USA): SXD transforms fashion brands’ leftover textiles into stylish zero-waste clothing using patent-pending AI. Their system eliminates material waste and creates efficient designs – achieving up to 69% material savings, ~80% lower carbon emissions, and up to 55% cost savings across the fashion production process.
• AgriTech Analytics Ltd. (Kenya): Agritech Analytics helps smallholder farmers monitor crops and soils using AI-driven sensors that detect pests, diseases, and perform on-site soil diagnostics. Results are sent via SMS or their Farmpulse App – enabling timely, informed decisions that improve yields, raise incomes, and support sustainable farming.

Transport & Mobility – projects transforming transportation by shifting away from the internal combustion engine.

• Carma Technology Corporation (USA): Carma Technology’s GoCarma app currently rewards 90,000 Dallas-Fort Worth commuters with incentives for low-emission travel. It verifies trips automatically and incentivizes HOV use, off-peak travel, using transit, and route shifts. As the first to link road pricing with verified behavior, it proves emissions cuts can drive revenue.
• ElectricFish Energy Inc. (USA): ElectricFish builds microgrids that quickly enable fast EV charging and emergency backup for fleets in grid-constrained areas – in days, not years. Their award-winning hardware and software deliver industry-leading time and cost savings in infrastructure, peak demand, and grid services.

The deadline to apply for was January 15, 2026. The 2026 Keeling Curve Prize Laureates will be announced on 1 July 2026.

Climate Curve Prize: Methane

The climate Curve Prize: Methane, launched by Climate Curve with support from the Global Methane Hub, is the first global prize dedicated to accelerating methane emissions mitigation solutions for food and waste systems. Inspired by the success of the Keeling curve Prize, this initiative will build a portfolio of breakthrough approaches to address methane emissions, starting with agriculture and waste.

There are four prize categories:

• Mitigation: Projects that directly reduce methane emissions in the agriculture and/or waste sectors by controlling or preventing key emissions processes. They are developing, advancing, and/or implementing technological, genetic, nature and process-based strategies for avoiding methane gas release.
• Social & cultural pathways: Projects that are changing the way people consider, understand and act on the most impactful contributors to methane emissions. These projects are influencing consumption, awareness, communication, mobilization, activism, policy, international relations, and cultural norms.
• Finance: Projects that are making the economics and/or financial mechanisms work for methane gas reduction and/or reversal ventures. These projects are designed to counterbalance or replace financial strategies that fail to account for longer-term planetary viability in respect to global warming and methane emissions.
• Monitoring, reporting & verification (MRV): Projects that are harnessing the power of MRV to make methane emissions reductions initiatives more successful and more impactful. They are developing systematic or more accurate measurements, disclosures and/or independent checks on methane emissions and their reduction or prevention.

The application deadline was 17 April 2026.

Climate Breakthrough Award

The Climate Breakthrough Award program supports visionary leaders to develop, launch, and scale their boldest new initiatives for policy, economic, and social transformation to address the climate crisis. The program is designed to overcome the constraints of traditional grantmaking that often stifle breakthrough thinking. It uniquely blends the large-scale innovation focus of institutions known for pursuing inventions, with the nimble and entrepreneurial spirit of startup incubators and venture capital.

The largest climate award for individuals, the Climate Breakthrough Award provides each Awardee with $4 million in multiyear, flexible funding to develop, launch, and scale their boldest new initiatives.

2025 Awardees

• Alessandra Orofino (Brazil): founder of Peri Productions and visionary cultural strategist and narrative producer, she works at the intersection of climate justice, storytelling, and democratic transformation through crafting stories that spark action, shift worldviews, and expand the collective imagination of a just future.
• Gavin McCormick (USA): a pioneering climate technology leader who cofounded WattTime, developing real-time emission reduction technology now built into over one billion devices sold by major companies, and Climate TRACE, recognized as Fast Company’s #5 most innovative company worldwide.
• Liming Qiao (Singapore): a pioneering strategist in Asia’s energy transition with over two decades of experience in everything from climate negotiations to renewable energy deployment. Through the award, Liming is creating the first coalition targeting grid flexibility and energy storage bottlenecks in the renewable energy transition across the ASEAN region, the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer.
• Ramón Méndez Galain (Uruguay): a key actor shaping Uruguay’s transformation to 98% renewable electricity. He now serves as Executive Director of Ivy, an environmental NGO that advises governments across Latin America. Through the award, he will scale Ivy’s demonstrated approach and partner with countries across the Global South to address systemic barriers that have prevented them from replicating Uruguay’s success.
• Team: Giuliana Furci (Chile), Merlin Sheldrake (UK), and Toby Kiers (Netherlands): this team represents an unprecedented collaboration bringing together fungi conservation advocacy, science communication, and cutting-edge research.
  • Giuliana founded the world’s first fungi-focused nonprofit and successfully advocated for Chile to become the first country including fungi in environmental law.
  • Merlin authored the million-copy bestseller “Entangled Life,” bringing fungi into public consciousness.
  • Toby co-founded SPUN and uses innovative research combining robotics and imaging to map underground fungal networks.

UNDRR & Munich Re Foundation – Risk Award

The RISK Award, launched in 2012, awards up to €100,000 every two years to fund groundbreaking projects helping improve disaster risk reduction and management. It is jointly organized by Munich Re Foundation and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

The 2025 Winner was announced during a ceremony hosted at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

• ChildFund International – recognized for a project aimed at empowering indigenous children and youths on the front line of emergency preparedness and climate resilience in Bolivia. It addresses the current vulnerability and low response capacity of schools, the psychological impacts of wildfires on children, while improving vulnerable schools’ preparedness and resilience to future events, and empowering indigenous youths and school-age children as climate advocates

QS ImpACT Climate Education for Change Award

2025 Winner:

• Solve Education (Indonesia) – In Bandung’s flood-prone Citarum basin, marginalised groups, especially youth and people with disabilities, often lack access to green-skills education. Solve Education’s program, Ecopower, changed that by training 18,000+ participants in circular economy, sustainability, and green micro-business development. Through mentoring, employment connections, and business planning, Ecopower created pathways to resilience and economic opportunity

Pollution & Waste Awards

Celebrating solutions for circularity, pollution control, and waste reduction.

Zero Waste International Award (ZWIA)

The Zero Waste International Award (ZWIA) is a global initiative that celebrates remarkable accomplishments in the realm of zero waste. Administered by the Zero Waste Foundation in partnership with UN-Habitat and UNEP, the Awards recognize outstanding initiatives that align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Inaugural 2025 Winners

• Special Citation for Contributions to Zero Waste Living: HE Nga Kor Ming, President of the United Nations Habitat Assembly & Minister of Housing and Local Government, Malaysia.
  • Recognized for positioning Zero Waste at the heart of international policy. His leadership led ASEAN and China to adopt Zero Waste frameworks in urban sustainability programs, while Malaysia’s own transformation includes mandatory eco-design standards, the “Say No to Single-Use Plastics” campaign and the conversion of landfills into Lestari (Sustainability) Parks.
• Outstanding Achievement as a Zero Waste Global Business: Too Good To Go (Denmark)
  • Too Good To Go transforms surplus food from restaurants and retailers into accessible, low-cost consumer meals, saving over 200 million meals from going to waste, proving that sustainability and scalability can go hand-in-hand.
• Outstanding Achievement for Zero Waste Innovation YENXA (Spain)
  • YENXA’s proprietary appliance turns used cooking oil into biodegradable soap, preventing water contamination while empowering households to engage in waste-to-product circularity, a remarkable example of grassroots scale innovation with global potential.
• Outstanding Achievement as a Zero Waste City: Boris Palmer, Mayor of Tübingen, Germany
  • Tübingen became the first German city to tax single-use packaging, sparking a 15 per cent reduction in public litter in just one year. Despite corporate legal challenges, the policy was upheld by Germany’s Constitutional Court, positioning Tübingen as a leading case study in behavioural change through municipal intervention.
• Outstanding Achievement in Zero Waste Industrial Solutions: Pedro Bulnes, Co-Founder & CEO, Rembre (Chile)
  • Rembre Tires recycles over 800,000kg of mining tyres per month, addressing one of Latin America’s hardest-to-treat industrial waste streams. The company’s impact helped inaugurate Chile’s national Extended Producer Responsibility (REP) law, demonstrating how industrial circularity can reshape national policy.

Zero Waste Cities Recognition

In response to the UN Secretary-General’s call for transformative waste action, the Advisory Board on Zero Waste (hosted by UN-Habitat and UNEP) is inviting cities to nominate themselves and showcase their innovative, inclusive and sustainable initiatives to tackle waste in their cities. Selected cities will be celebrated among the “20 Zero Waste Cities”, gaining global visibility and high-level endorsement to inform policy, unlock funding, and catalyze peer learning.

Twenty submissions will be published and showcased by the Advisory Board and highlighted on its dedicated webpage. The successful submissions will also be spotlighted by the Advisory Board members at high-level events. The 20 cities are: Accra, Bologna, Chefchaouen, Dar es Salaam, Dehiwala City, Florianópolis, Gaziantep, George Town, Hangzhou City, Iloilo City, Kisumu, Kuala Lumpur, Lilongwe City, San Fernando, San Francisco, Sanya City, Suzhou City, Varkala, City of Yokohama, Zapopan. 

Science & Innovation Awards

Highlighting excellence in scientific discovery, technological solutions, and innovation for sustainable development and environmental challenges.

BloombergNEF’s Pioneers Award

BNEF Pioneers is the world’s leading climate-tech innovation competition, recognizing solutions with the potential to accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change. This award recognizes game-changing technologies or innovations with the potential to accelerate the transition toward a net-zero economy across three key climate challenges.

2026 winners:

• Challenge 1: Technologies for sustainable, scalable data center infrastructure
  • Emerald AI is developing software that makes AI data centers power-flexible, turning them from static loads into intelligent grid assets.
  • HT Materials Science is engineering a drop-in heat-transfer fluid that improves the energy efficiency of closed loop HVAC systems in data centers and industrial faciliites.
  • Point2 Technology is developing radio frequency semiconductor interconnect technology that allows for faster and more energy efficient communication in AI data centers.
• Challenge 2: Flattening the duck curve
  • Base Power is operating a distributed residential battery network that balances the grid and provides backup power during outages.
  • Qvantum is decarbonizing heating and cooling in multi-family buildings with flexible heat pumps that shift load away from peak hours.
  • XL Batteries is developing organic flow batteries for long duration energy storage that support grid reliability and enable greater deployment of renewable power.
• Challenge 3: Decarbonizing shipping and heavy-duty transport
  • DeepWay is cutting trucking emissions and modernizing freight logistics with its electric trucks and driver assistance systems.
  • Silverstream Technology is reducing emissions in commercial shipping through air lubrication technology that decreases hull resistance and lowers fuel consumption.
  • WattEV is decarbonizing transportation through a vertically integrated system that combined charging infrastructure, truck leasing, and logistic operations.
• Wildcards    
  • BasiGo is electrifying public transport in Kenya and Rwanda by leasing electric buses and developing charging infrastructure.
  • Endolith is improving the supply of critical minerals by using microbes to recover more copper from low-grade ore.
  • GRST is advancing cleaner batter production with a PFAS-free water soluble binder for lithium-ion batteries.

ONE CREATION – Environmental Innovation Awards

The purpose of the Environmental Innovation Awards is to promote the goals and values of ONE CREATION as an investor by supporting young companies in the early stages of their existence and to integrate them into a community.​ Since 2010, the board of ONE CREATION has been successfully financing growth-stage private companies through its private equity allocation in the field of environmental innovation.​  Three companies at the early development stage are financially renumerated and honored at the Building Bridges event in Geneva, Switzerland.

2024 Winners:

• Solar Freeze: a Kenyan start-up, took the top position with its innovative solutions to help the local growers.
• Cotierra: a Swiss-Colombian company, secured second place for their impactful contributions to improving carbon sequestration in tropical soils.
• Libattion: a Zurich-based company, earned the third position with their impressive energy storage solutions through the use of upcycled lithium batteries.

Group on Earth Observatoins (GEO) Awards

The GEO Awards, presented by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), recognize outstanding use of Earth observation and geospatial data to support sustainable development, environmental protection and evidence-based decision-making worldwide. The awards highlight innovation, collaboration and leadership in applying satellite and ground-based data to address global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and disaster risk.

2025 Winners

Emerging Leader Award:

• Michel Jurua – for using Earth intelligence and machine learning to protect biodiversity and empower local wildfire monitoring in Uganda.
• Dr. Linyi Liu – for integrating satellite data and AI to forecast agricultural pests and improve food security across multiple countries.

Lifetime Achievement Award:

• Dr. Lawrence A. Friedl – From NASA’s Mission Control to leading the Applied Sciences Program, Dr Lawrence Friedl has spent his career at the forefront of turning satellite science into real-world solutions. His visionary leadership has brought Earth Intelligence into policy, planning, and humanitarian action, driving progress on air quality, public health, agriculture, disaster risk reduction and more.
• Dr. Stuart Minchin – Dr Stuart Minchin’s career has redefined how Earth observation data supports entire regions. As the architect behind Digital Earth Australia and a key figure in launching Digital Earth Africa and efforts in the Pacific, He has championed access to satellite-based tools for climate resilience, water security and disaster response.
• Dr. Yifang Ban – A global leader in urban remote sensing, Dr Yifang Ban’s work at KTH Royal Institute of Technology has advanced the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and artificial intelligence for applications in disaster response, climate resilience and urban sustainability. Through cutting edge innovations, she has devoted her career to making Earth Intelligence accessible, actionable and impactful, particularly in developing regions.

UNCTAD-AIB Award for Research on Investment and Development

The UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Division of Investment and Enterprise and the Academy of International Business (AIB) have jointly established an award for the best young academic research work on international investment and development. The award is intended for PhD students or early career researchers with no more than five years of full-time work experience. Contributions should focus on how to ensure international investment and multinational enterprises contribute to sustainable development. Research areas may include topics shaping the future of investment, such as investment in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The deadline to apply was 25 February 2026.

2025 Winner

• Ebehi Iyoha – Harvard University: Article « Home-Country Productivity Spillovers from U.S Multinational Activity ».

WIPO Global Awards

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Awards recognize exceptional startups and SMEs from all sectors who use Intellectual Property (IP) to drive business growth and societal impact. The WIPO Global Awards Program grants 10 awards in 5 categories: health, environment, creative industries, food and agriculture and ICT. They also give 2 special mentions to the best woman entrepreneur and best youth entrepreneur.

The application deadline for the 2026 awards is 31 March 2026. The winners will be announced in July 2026 during the WIPO General Assemblies.

2025 Environment Related Award Winners 

• Carbfix transforms CO2 into stone by accelerating a natural mineralization process underground, offering a permanent and scalable carbon capture solution. The company’s proprietary injection and monitoring technology have been successfully deployed in Iceland and are being expanded globally.
• Smart Drain – Urban Inventors is a patented stormwater drainage system designed to prevent urban flooding even when conventional drains are blocked by waste. Its unique structure allows continuous water flow while filtering out debris, making it ideal for densely population areas.
• PhageLab develops precision bacteriophage therapies to replace antibiotics in livestock farming, reducing antimicrobial resistance and improving animal health. Their platform uses AI and big data to create tailor-made phage solutions that target specific bacterial strains in poultry and swine.
• Planetary develops precision fermentation facilities to produce sustainable food ingredients – notably mycoprotein derived from sugar – offering a nutritious, animal free protein alternative. Their biomanufacturing platform enables scalable, modular production of high-quality proteins, lipids, and enzymes for the food industry.

Policy & Governance Leadership Awards

Recognizing leadership in environmental diplomacy, law, policy-making, and international cooperation.

World Future Policy Award

The World Future Policy Award celebrates top policy solutions for us and generations to come. This award spotlights visionary and exemplary laws and policies, accelerating policy action toward a common future, where every person lives in dignity on a healthy, sustainable planet. Each year they focus on one topic where progress is particularly urgent and receive nominations from across the globe.

The 2025 awards titled, « Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations« , recognized the winners at the World Future Council in partnership with the International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

• Environmental Ombudsoffice of Tyrol (Austria): an independent institution representing nature and the public interest in environmental decision-making across Tyrol, Austria. It ensures ecological concerns are integrated into land-use and development planning while advising and engaging citizens. Through innovative programmes like Citizen Biotopes and youth initiatives, it promotes a democratic, inclusive culture of living in harmony with Nature and future generations.
• Biodiversity Act (Bhutan): The Biodiversity Act of Bhutan 2003 (amended in 2022) establishes the legal foundation for the conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of the country’s biological and genetic resources. Administered by the National Biodiversity Centre, the Act integrates traditional knowledge and scientific governance within a rights-based framework.
• Law 287 on the Rights of Nature and Related State Obligations (Panama): Law No 287 of 2022, grants legal rights to Nature within the Republic of Panama. It introduces a suite for rights for ecosystems and living beings, including the rights to exist, persist, regenerate life cycles, and be restored following harm. It has already been judicially enforced in high-profile environmental litigation and is shaping national discourse, legislation, and activism towards a more nature-centric governance paradigm.
• National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA) (South Africa): NEM:BA establishes the legal framework for conserving South Africa’s biodiversity with around 95 000 described species across nine terrestrial biomes. It creates the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and a Scientific Authority; mandates strategic tools; regulates threatened and invasive species, genetically modified organisms and bioprospecting; and embeds public participation, cooperative governance, and intergenerational equity.
• Law 19/2022 Granting Mar Menor and its basin status of a legal person (Spain): Law 19/2022 grants legal personality to the Mar Menor Lagoon and its basin, recognising the ecosystem as a subject of rights. The law includes the right to exist, evolve naturally, be protected, conserved, and restored. The law assigns legal guardianship and representation for the Lagoon to Public Administration, with support from the local community. The law marks a legal paradigm shift from anthropocentric to ecocentric jurisprudence and aligns with broader movements for the rights of Nature and protection of future generations
• The National Environment Act (Uganda): Uganda’s principal legislation for environmental protection and management. It recognizes the rights of Nature and the duty to maintain a clean and healthy environment for current and future generations. It reinforces the role of environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs), introduces strategic environmental assessments (SEAs), and outlines provisions for pollution control, sustainable use of ecosystems, biodiversity conservation, and management of hazardous substances

Vision Award Winner:

• BBNJ Agreement: an international treaty adopted in 2023 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It addresses the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The BBNJ Agreement explicitly refers to the responsibility of present generations to act as stewards of the oceans on behalf of both current and future generations. It also embeds principles such as the common heritage of humankind, the ecosystem approach, and intergenerational equity within its general provisions.

Global Impact Award Winner:

• Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act Aotearoa (New Zealand): By conferring a legal personality to the river, the Te Awa Tupua Act reflects the deep ancestral relationship the Whanganui Iwi (tribes) have with the sacred waterway and gives them legal means to protect it. The Act affirms the river as a living, indivisible entity.

International Council for Environmental Law (ICEL) Burhenne-Guilmin Award

Inaugural 2025 Winner:

• Prof. Dr. Christina Voigt – recognized for her outstanding contributions to advancing the environmental rule of law, including her leadership in bringing together teams of legal experts to prepare influential oral and written submissions to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and International Court of Justice regarding their Advisory Opinions on climate change.

ISES Global Leadership Award in Advancing Solar Energy Policy

In recognition of the late Dr. Hermann Scheer (1944-2010), this award was introduced and presented for the first time in 2011 to pay tribute to the solar hero whose enormous contribution and vocal political commitment to solar energy were so effective in bringing about energy changes globally. The award is presented to a person who has made significant contributions to the advancement of solar energy policy.

2025 Winner:

• Dr. Robert Habeck: former Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and former Vice Chancellor of Germany. Dr. Habeck has been a leading figure in German politics representing Alliance 90/The Greens since the early 2000s. During his tenure, Dr. Habeck played a pivotal role in advancing Germany’s renewable energy transition. Under his leadership, the 2022 “Easter Package” introduced a series of ambitious measures to accelerate the deployment of solar and wind energy across the country. Notably, Dr. Habeck established the classification of renewable energy projects as being of “overriding public interest” – a landmark achievement that significantly strengthened the legal and policy framework for renewables in Germany.

Youth Awards

Celebrating young innovators, leaders, and future environmental champions.

UNEP Young Champions on the Earth

Launched in 2017, this award is the flagship youth engagement initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award is given annually to ambitious young people from around the world with outstanding ideas to protect and restore the environment, and since 2024 it has been implemented with the support of Chris Kemper and in partnership with Planet A.

The application deadline for the 2026 awards has been extended to 15 April 2026.

2025 Winners:

• Jinali Pranabh Mody (India):  founder and CEO of Banofi Leather. The material-science startup is turning banana crop waste into a plant-based leather alternative. Made from banana stem fibre blended with natural binders and starches, the material looks, feels and even smells like animal leather. . It reduces water use by 95 per cent, cuts carbon emissions by more than 90 per cent and eliminates toxic waste
• Joseph Nguthiru (Kenya): founder of the Kenyan startup HyaPak, which produces biodegradable packaging from the pulp of water hyacinths, an invasive weed that covers much of Kenya’s Lake Naivasha. The packaging includes seedling bags that decompose directly into the soil, parcel packaging for courier services and carton linings that keep food fresh without cold storage.
• Noemi Florea (USA): inventor of Cycleau, a compact system that turns greywater into drinking water. Using a four-stage treatment process, it removes over 200 contaminants, reduces building water footprints by up to 80 per cent and lowers energy demand by more than a third, all at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems. Cycleau has been piloted in projects ranging from a public bottle filling station in the United States of America, to schools along the Tajikistan–Afghanistan border.

Youth4Climate Call for Solutions – UNDP & Government of Italy

Youth4Climate (Y4C) Call for Solutions is a global innovation challenge for Youth and Youth-led organizations working on climate action focused projects. Since 2023, Y4C has allocated an envelope of $4 million in direct funding to 150 youth-led climate projects across 59 countries.

The 2026 Call is seeking to support solutions that are ready to be implemented or scaled and aligns with evolving climate action priorities. This year, the applications are categorized under these themes:

• Sustainable Energy: Accelerating clean energy access and innovation.
• Food and Agriculture: Supporting food systems change.
• Climate, Peace, and Security: Strengthening peace-positive climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Oceans and Blue Economy: Protecting marine ecosystems, reducing pollution, and advancing inclusive, low-emission, and climate-resilient blue livelihoods.
• Architecture for Adaptation: Innovations in design, construction, materials, and spatial planning that integrate nature-based solutions and circular economy principles.
• Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Alternative consumption and production pathways that reduce emissions, waste, and pollution, while promoting fair and safe labor, transparency, and cultural expression.

The deadline to apply is 30 April 2026.

UNESCO MAB Young Scientists Award

UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge

The UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge is a global initiative that identifies and supports early- and growth-stage frontier tech start-ups from emerging economies developing scalable solutions to protect children from the impacts of climate change. Organised by the UNICEF Venture Fund in partnership with the India Health Fund and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the Challenge focuses on child-centric climate and health technologies, climate adaptation, resilience, disaster risk management and early-warning systems. The program is part of UNICEF’s broader climate-innovation ecosystem, which also  includes Innovation30 – a global platform that identifies and supports promising climate innovators under the age of 30. It provides visibility, expert validation and connections to partners, helping youth-led climate solutions grow.

2025 Winners

• ClimatrixAI (Nigeria): Combines satellite imagery, IoT sensors and AI to deliver hyperlocal predictions of floods, heatwaves and other climate hazards, turning fragmented data into actionable early-warning intelligence for communities and planners
• NAXA (Nepal): NAXA blends community insights with climate and hazard data to generate localized risk profiles and multilingual preparedness messages, strengthening anticipatory action in hard-to-reach regions across Nepal.
• RIFFAI (Thailand): integrates GIS layers, weather forecasts, geological indicators, and classification models into an AI system that predicts environmental changes and their severity, bridging the gap between raw geospatial data and real-time disaster preparedness decisions.
• RESPIRER (India): Respirer uses AI to process high-frequency environmental and air-quality data collected from school-zone and in-vehicle monitors, revealing pollution patterns where it matters most for children and offering cities actionable insights to design safer, healthier environments.
• TRYOLABS (Uruguay): female-founded / female-led. TryoLabs leverages generative AI, AI agents, and GeoAI to transform fragmented climate datasets into clear, actionable insights for children and the systems that support them. Their work shows how advanced AI can be grounded in public-good use cases, enabling governments and NGOs to respond faster and plan more effectively for climate change.

The Earth Prize

The Earth Prize, the world’s largest environmental competition for young people,  is an annual global $100,000 environmental sustainability competition for students between the ages of 13 and 19, which rewards the teams whose projects have the most potential to address environmental issues. The Earth Prize aims to inspire and empower the next generation of environmental leaders and innovators, creating a global platform for sharing and scaling their solutions. The Earth Prize features seven regional winners, each receiving $12,500 to implement their ideas. The regions are Southeast Asia and Oceania, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America, and Central & South America. In addition, three mentors of the year will be recognized, with each receiving $2,500.

2026 Global Winners

• Plas-stick, India | 16 Years-Old Vivaan, Ariana and Avyana
  

2026 Regional Winners

• Eco-purge, Ireland: A biodegradable plastic that breaks down safely and releases catalysts to remove existing microplastics
• HewaSafi Innovators, Kenya: A low-cost vehicle exhaust system that captures emissions using filters made from maize, coconut, agricultural waste and algae
• Build Hope, Palestine: Turning rubble into reusable blocks, bringing young people together to rebuild their communities
• Plas-stick, India: A powder made from waste tamarind seeds that clumps microplastics for easy removal from water with a handheld magnet
• Homes for Hornbills, Thailand: Protecting hornbills, vital seed dispersers in forests, through nests made from upcycled plastic bottles and community conservation
  
• SargaTex PR, Puerto Rico: Turning rubble into reusable blocks, bringing young people together to rebuild their communities
• HADA, Brazil: Biodegradable bandages made with aloe vera and chamomile that replace plastic with plant-based alternatives

Registration for 2027 are open.

Action for Nature – International Young Eco-Hero Awards

Every year since 2003, Action for Nature (AFN), a U.S.-based non-profit, has sought to recognize and reward young people between the ages of 8 and 16 who are taking action to solve the global environmental challenges.

2025 Award Winners, Age Group 8-13:

• 1st place: Alice Wanjiru (Kenya) – 11-year-old climate ambassador, leading efforts to rehabilitate Nairobi’s Ruai Sewer Treatment Plant by planting over 2’000 trees, mobilizing community clean-ups, and successfully advocating for policies protecting communities from harmful emissions.
• 2nd place: Harsita Priyadarshini Mohanty (India) – 13-year-old recognized for her project on agro-biodiversity conservation where she established a unique indigenous seed bank, preserving over 240 varieties of paddy and millet through a « loan for exchange » to promote food security and climate resilience.
• 2nd place: Nicolina Pappas (USA) – 13-year-old combatting single-use plastic pollution through Nicolina’s Turtle Co. She has raised over $15’000 for conservation, educated thousands, and successfully advocated for her « Skip the Plastic Campaign », leading to city-wide proclamations and state resolutions like « Skip the Plastic Day »
• 3rd place: Josue Arias Calderon (Colombia) – 11-year-old passionate defender of high-mountain ecosystems. Through social media videos and restoration campaigns, he educates and inspires thousands to protect vital páramos and glaciers, ensuring water for 85% of Colombians.
• See other honorable mentions here

2025 Award Winners, Age Group 14-16:

• 1st place: Priyanshi Poddar (Nepal) – 16-year-old transforming rubber waste into comfort and dignity for underserved communities. Through her Saathi initiative, she upcycles discarded rubber into mats and clogs, benefiting over 4’000 individuals and preventing significant CO2 emissions.
• 2nd place: Nethanya Fonseka (USA) – 16-year-old leading Plant It Forward, an initiative combating climate change through tree planting. She cultivates climate resilience and environmental justice, securing funding for a microforest and honoring indigenous heritage through native gardens.
• 2nd place: Charmante Espoire Nduwayo (Burundi) – 15-year-old saving the Gikoma River. Through tree planting and community education on sanitary waste, she’s stabilized riverbanks, reduced pollution, and safeguarded her community’s health and livelihoods.
• 3rd place: Bibhuti Bhattarai (Nepal) – 16-year-old empowering communities through « Girls Leading Organic Way ». She teaches young girls and mothers to transform kitchen waste into organic compost, fostering sustainable farming and reducing reliance on harmful chemicals.
• 3rd place: Eesha Ande (USA) – 16-year-old combating period poverty and plastic waste through her impactful sustainable menstrual hygiene initiative, empowering menstruators with reusable products and vital education.
• See other honorable mentions here

2025 Special Award Winners

• Dr. Mary Griffin-Jones Award: Ana Lucía Pérez Escalera (Puerto Rico) – 13-year-old leading « De a Pokito por Puerto Rico » where she educates over 100’000 people on environmental care and waste reduction through STEAM, hackathons, and legislative advocacy.
• Shimon Schwarzschild Award: Dominic Oviedo Löwen (Paraguay) – 16-year-old leading « Mymba Saite », he documents and shares his country’s biodiversity, awakening love for wild animals through books, social media, and education.

Deadline for registration is 28 February, 2026.

Young Activist Summit (YAS) Awards

The Young Activist Summit is held annually in the fall in Geneva, Switzerland and online. Candidates must be 30 years old or younger and demonstrate clear, concrete impact in their community or on the environment. Five YAS Laureates are selected each year. They come from different regions of the world and work on different causes. What they all have in common is real impact and the potential to grow their work.

The application/nomination deadline is 15 March 2026.

2025 Laureates:

• Animata Savané (25-years-old, Côte d’Ivoire): She began her journey in 2020 with UNICEF’s Young Bloggers programme, fighting online disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, she is Vice-President of Centre Marée de Lumière and supports projects that give young people and women the opportunity to learn essential digital.
• Dev Karan (17-years-old, India): Through an initiative he co-founded called, Pandora, Dev and his team restores traditional pods. Dev developed IoT sensors and a mobile app to monitor water quality. Through Pandora, he has already restored ponds, trained young leaders, and gained recognition from India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
• Marina El Khawand (24-years-old, Lebanon): Marina founded Medonations when she was 18 after the Beirut Port explosion. Through Medonations, the team provides people with medicines and health care support they need, and have reached more than 25’000 people so far. In 2022, she also helped establish Lebanon’s first Free HealthTech Clinic, a platform that uses digital tools and AI to make healthcare more accessible to everyone.
• Salvino Oliveira (28-years-old, Brazil): Salvino co-founded PerifaConnection to amplify the voices of youth from the favelas and launched AfroEducando to help first-generation students go to university. His « Pacto pela Juventude », developed in partnership with UNESCO, reached more than 150’000 youth. Today, he is a city councilor and chair of Rio’s Education Commission, where he continues to promote digital inclusion and opportunity.
• Rena Kawasaki (20-yearls-old, Japan): When she was just 14, Rena co-founded Earth Guardians Japan, which brings together students and politicians through online session. Rena has also helped design an online system in NIihama City that allows citizens, especially the youth, to share ideas directly with local government.

 

Eduki – Françoise Demole Award

The Françoise Demole Award is given to the winner of the bi-annual competition, under the high patronage of the Director General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, which calls on young people in Switzerland to share their vision for the future, to imagine, create, and act for a sustainable world, through art work, media production, or concrete actions.

The Award supports projects of youth in secondary schools participating in the « concrete action » category and relating to « International Geneva » and sustainable development.

In its 10th edition, this year’s competition focuses on the theme: exploring the impact of digital technology on our daily lives. Registration for 2025/2026 are now closed. The Award Ceremony will take place at the UN Office in Geneva in May 2026.

2023/2024 Winners

• Allers les vers (le retour)
• Xirup: l’élixir de fruit
• Hive’Five

 

 

Grassroot Initiatives & Environmental Justice Awards

Honoring individuals and communities advancing environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and grassroots advocacy.

The Goldman Environmental Prize

UNDP Equator Prize

The UNDP Equator Prize, presented by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is a biennial award that recognizes Indigenous Peoples and local community-led nature-based solutions advancing sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and climate resilience. Selected from hundreds of nominations worldwide, the Prize celebrates initiatives that combine traditional knowledge with innovative approaches to protect ecosystems, reduce poverty, and build equitable, nature-positive livelihood

In 2025, the Equator Prize focused on“Nature for Climate Action”, highlighting women and youth-led initiatives. Ten winners were selected from over 700 nominations across 103 countries, showcasing the global breadth of Indigenous and community solutions. Each laureate receives USD 10,000, is featured in high-level forums such as the UN General Assembly and COP30.

2025 Winners:

• Cooperativa de Mujeres Artesanas del Gran Chaco (Argentina): A cooperative empowering more than 2,600 Indigenous women in the Gran Chaco through Matriarca, a sustainable brand transforming traditional crafts into global-market products. COMAR strengthens biodiversity protection, climate resilience, and women-led governance through culturally rooted, nature-based solutions.
• Associação Uasei dos Povos Indígenas de Oiapoque (Brazil): Bringing together four Indigenous Peoples in Amapá, Uasei is building a sustainable, Indigenous-led bioeconomy around native açaí. By creating their own agroindustry and value chain, they boost incomes, protect biodiversity, and promote women and youth leadership in cultural and ecological stewardship.
• Hakhu Amazon Foundation (Ecuador): A women- and youth-led organization defending the Amazon through Indigenous rights advocacy, decolonial education, and grassroots media. Their women’s territorial guard, Yuturi Warmi, protects land and life, while a social enterprise supports culturally rooted livelihoods for Kichwa women.
• Bibifathima Swa Sahaya Sangha (India): A women-led initiative supporting over 5,000 farmers across 30 villages with regenerative agriculture, millet-based cropping, seed banks, and solar-powered processing. The group advances biodiversity restoration, food security, and economic empowerment for marginalized women and youth.
• Mitra BUMMA (Indonesia): Supporting tribal governance and sustainable livelihoods in Tanah Papua, Mitra BUMMA helps protect 100,000 hectares of rainforest while strengthening community enterprises. Over 3,000 people, especially women, benefit from initiatives in climate finance, ecosystem stewardship, and traditional knowledge.
• Ranu Welum Foundation (Indonesia): A women- and youth-led Indigenous organization mobilizing Dayak communities for forest conservation, cultural revitalization, and environmental storytelling. Their programmes protect 3,000 hectares of forest, restore peatlands, and train women firefighters, driving inclusive climate action in Central Kalimantan.
• Nature and People As One – NaPO (Kenya): A women- and youth-led pastoralist organization restoring drylands using traditional knowledge and low-cost techniques. NaPO has restored more than 550 hectares and manages 10,000+ hectares under community bylaws, strengthening local climate resilience and ecosystem governance.
• Sea Women of Melanesia Inc. – SWoM (Papua New Guinea): An Indigenous women-led initiative that trains women to lead marine conservation using both traditional knowledge and marine science. Since 2018, SWoM has trained over 50 women and helped manage 1,500 hectares of coral reef across 15 villages, improving ecosystems and livelihoods.
• Cuyocuyo Terraces Agrobiodiversity Zone (Peru): Led by six Quechua communities, this is Peru’s first officially recognized agrobiodiversity zone. Stretching across 6,500 hectares, it protects 1,281 native crop varieties and preserves one of the Andes’ largest systems of ancient agricultural terraces.
• Sustainable Ocean Alliance Tanzania – SOA Tanzania (Tanzania): A youth-led initiative restoring marine ecosystems and supporting coastal communities. SOA Tanzania has restored over 100 hectares of seagrass, planted 20,000 mangroves, and trained 130+ young leaders, while promoting sustainable seaweed farming through its Bahari Venture.
• Sea Women of Melanesia Inc. (Papua New Guinea): An Indigenous women-led organization that empowers local women to lead marine conservation by blending traditional knowledge with modern science and technology. Since 2018, SWoM has trained over 50 Indigenous women in reef monitoring, marine science, and leadership, enabling them to manage Locally Management Marine Areas across 1,500 hectares of biodiverse coral reef habitat.

Women’s International Network for Disaster Risk Reduction Leadership Awards (WIN DRR)

The WIN DRR Leadership Awards recognizes women’s achievements in disaster risk reduction across the Asia-Pacific region. These awards are a part of UNDRR’s flagship women’s leadership initiative WIN DRR, which is supported by the Government of Australia.

2025 Award Winners:

• Excellency Award – Takena Redern (Kiribati). Takena is recognized for advancing inclusive, people-centered disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable island nations. As Acting Director of Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management in the Office of the President of Kiribati, she has led the rollout of the Early Warnings for All initiative, strengthened multi-hazard early-warning systems, embedded gender and disability inclusion in DRR governance, and mobilized international climate-risk financing to support communities most exposed to climate impacts.
• Rising Start Award – Nashin Mahtani (Indonesia). As Director of Yayasan Peta Bencana, Nashin is transforming disaster risk reduction through community-driven digital innovation. Leading one of the largest open-source, people-powered DRR platforms in the Global South, used by over 200 million people, she has shifted disaster preparedness from top-down alerts to real-time, co-created risk information. Her work enables communities, governments and humanitarian actors to share verified data, coordinate peer-to-peer support during crises, and strengthen response systems across Southeast Asia and beyond, demonstrating how inclusive technology can save lives at scale.

United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction

The Sasakawa Award, administered by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) with support from the Nippon Foundation, honors individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to building resilience, reducing disaster risk and promoting inclusive, people-centered approaches to disaster preparedness. Established in 1986 alongside sister prizes in health and the environment, the award highlights innovation and leadership in translating science and technology into accessible solutions for communities at risk.

The 2025 award focused on “Connecting science to people: democratizing access to innovation and technology for disaster-resilient communities,” underscoring the importance of inclusive, evidence-based resilience strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

2025 Award Winners:

• Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra (India): Director General of the India Meteorological Department, widely recognized for advancing cyclone forecasting and early warning systems that have saved lives through improved disaster preparedness.

• Dr. Harkunti Pertiwi Rahayu (Indonesia): Professor and disaster risk expert leading efforts to strengthen people-centred early warning, mitigation and preparedness systems at national and international levels.

• Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR): A global civil-society network working across 130+ countries to embed local knowledge and community leadership into resilient disaster risk strategies.

Swiss-based Environmental Awards & Prizes

Switzerland hosts a wide ecosystem of awards that reflect its strong commitment to environmental protection, scientific excellence, and sustainable business innovation. Many of these prizes support emerging talent, applied research, and pioneering solutions for the green transition.

UNIL-EPFL Durabilis Award

The Durabilis Award, jointly organised by EPFL and the University of Lausanne, recognises outstanding student projects that explore sustainability challenges and solutions. Open to Bachelor’s and Master’s students, the prize supports innovative work that integrates environmental, social and economic sustainability, with awards presented annually in December

2025 Winners: 

• Zélie Cortes (EPFL) : Canopée sociale : adaptation et réhabilitation d’un ensemble résidentiel à Nyon face aux vulnérabilités socio-climatiques.
• Célia Fleury et Nikita Audergon (Unil) : “Il y a de plus en plus de catastrophes comme les guerres, les explosions, les feux…” : Analyse thématique des perceptions et émotions d’enfants de 9-10 ans face aux enjeux planétaires.
• Aurélie Fornerod (Unil) : Accessibilité à l’épicerie alternative Coupe-circuit : enjeux et possibilités d’action.
• Brian Salamin (EPFL) : Une gestion intégrée des étiages de l’Aire et de la Drize : Des solutions systémiques pour des rivières résilientes.

The deadline for submitting applications is 15 October, and the awards ceremony takes place in December.

Bernese Award for Environmental Research

Presented biennially by the University of Bern, this award promotes excellence in environmental sciences and sustainability research. Winners are recognized for academic work that deepens understanding of environmental problems and contributes to practical solutions, with CHF 15,000 in prize money

2025 Winners:

• Dr. Gabi Sonderegger – « Governing agricultural land use in an interconnected world: Opportunities and challenges for Voluntary Sustainability Standards »
• Dr. Jonas Joël Schmid – « De-centralization and Wind Energy Permitting: An Evaluation of Implementation Effectiveness in Switzerland and Europe. »

 

Environmental Research Prize of the University of Fribourg

This prize supports early-career researchers whose disciplinary or interdisciplinary work advances scientific understanding of environmental issues and sustainability. It celebrates innovative research that contributes to identifying practical approaches to environmental challenges.

The deadline to apply to the 2026 prize is 30 June 2026.

2024 Winner:

• Sophie Bucher – « The Virtue Ethics of Shrub Encroachment on Cultural Landscapes. Extensive Subalpine Grasslands in the Valais, Switzerland as a Case Study of Good Environmental Stewardship »

Green Business Award

Presented by Swiss business organizations, the WWF, and the Swiss Confederation, the Green Business Award is Switzerland’s flagship sustainability prize for businesses that combine ecological impact with economic success.  National scouts nominate innovative companies and projects that advance climate, biodiversity or circular-economy solutions, with finalists selected by an expert jury.

2025 Winner:

• Oxyle (Schlieren, Switzerland) – Oxyle tackles one of the most persistent environmental contaminants, PFAS (“forever chemicals”), with a solution that permanently degrades the compounds rather than just capturing them. This technology addresses a major water-quality challenge affecting soil and groundwater globally, demonstrating how Swiss environmental innovation can solve complex, real-world pollution problems

 

Swiss Future Award

The Swiss Future Award, powered by B Lab Switzerland Foundation and enabled by the PETRAM Foundation, celebrates innovative Swiss startups and SMEs leading the sustainable transformation of business models, products and services. With three categories – Innovation, Environmental Awad and Public Choice Award, the award provides not only financial support but also visibility and resource to accelerate growth and deepen their contribution to a sustainable economy.

The 2026 applications are now open.

2025 Winners:

• Environmental Award: Luya – Luya Foods (Bern) has developed an innovative fermentation technology that transforms by-products like okara (a tofu residue) into high-quality, natural protein alternatives. By valorizing food waste and reducing emissions, Luya is helping build a more sustainable food system and its products are already sold in major outlets like Coop and ZFV canteens.
• Innovation Award: Deeplink – Deeplink is a Swiss AI and B-Corp certified company that enables public institutions and SMEs to deploy sovereign, secure, multilingual AI assistants. With more than 50 clients (from cantonal authorities to federal bodies) Deeplink’s solutions streamline operations while keeping full data control in the hands of organizations
• Public Choice Award: Kompotoi – Kompotoi offers stylish, chemical-free composting toilets crafted in Swiss wood for events, municipalities, construction sites or homes. Their systems protect drinking water and close nutrient cycles by turning waste into soil conditioner, combining sustainability with comfort and design.

Swiss Sustainability Reporting Excellence Awards

Hosted by PwC Switzerland with the University of St. Gallen, these awards recognize Swiss organizations that demonstrate leadership in sustainability reporting. They reward transparency, high-quality non-financial disclosures and reporting that drives continuous improvement in environmental and social performance.

2025 Winners:

• Basic materials: Sika
• Consumption: Lindt & Sprüngli
• Finance: Swiss Life
• Health: Novartis
• Industry: Swiss Post
• Real Estate: Swiss Prime Site
• Technology: Swisscom
• Intermediate Market: Tecan

Swiss Solar Prize / Schweizer Solarpreis

The Schweizer Solarpreis celebrates excellence in solar-energy deployment, building integration and renewable energy innovation. Award categories include solar installations, plus-energy buildings and special distinctions such as the Norman Foster Solar Award. Recipients demonstrate leadership in expanding solar energy and reducing carbon emissions nationwide.

2025 Prize Winners

Chemistry Travel Award

Sponsored by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) and the Swiss Chemical Society, the Chemistry Travel Award contributes towards the cost of participation at an international conferences in the chemical sciences. Applicants must be doing their PhD at a Swiss institution at the time of the application.

The submission deadline is 31 March 2026. 

See here for the full list of 2025 winners.

Geneva-based Environmental Awards & Prizes

University of Geneva Prix Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle

Awarded by the University of Geneva, this prize honors excellence in plant sciences, biodiversity research and related fields. It recognizes scholars whose work enhances knowledge of plant life and contributes to broader understanding of ecological systems

The next prize will be awarded in Geneva during early 2026.

2023 Winners:

• Paola de Lima Ferreira – laureate in phanerogamy, for an integrative taxonomy shed lights on the early evolution of Asteraceae (Barnadesioideae).
• Joaquina M. García Martin – laureate in cryptogamy, for amonograph of the order Physarales (Myxomycetes) in the molecular era: integrating morphologocal and molecular data to shed light on the dark-spored clade.

Concours Cantonal du Dévelopment Durable

In its 25th edition, the competition aims to support, encourage, and promote exemplary projects and achievements undertaken by civil society. The Sustainable Development Council will act as the jury, while a representative of the State Council will present the awards at the official ceremony to be held 5 May 2026 as a part of the Festival Explore Demain.

The competition includes three categories of awards:

• The grant contributes to the realization of a project led by a private or non-profit organization. It has a maximum value of 30,000 francs ;
• The Prize  rewards an achievement implemented by private or associative actors with a maximum amount of 10,000 francs ;
• The Distinction (without financial endowment) honours an achievement from the public or semi-public domain.

The deadline for submitting applications is February 17, 2026.

2025 Grant Winner:

• Radio Vostok Association – « Vostok Solar Tour », a mobile, non-polluting and autonomous production unit
• Cycloo Switzerland Company – LCAV, a bicycle collection system for food waste from Geneva restaurants

2025 Prize Winner:

• Mr. Raphaël Piuz – The first Swiss conservatory of disease-resistant grape varieties in Hermance

2025 Distinction:

• EMS Maison de Vessy – « Second change »: a good recipe for reducing waste

Prix IDDEA Competition for Sustainable Entrepreneurs

The IDDEA (Idees de Development Durable pour Les Entreprises d’Avenir) Prize encourages, supports, and rewards sustainable ideas that shape the future of the Geneva region. The selected finalists follow a 6-month training program to transform their idea into a business plan.

The deadline for registration is 17 March 2026. The 15 finalists will be announced on 29 April 2026 at the Prix  IDDEA Soirée d’ouverture.

2026 Finalists Related to the Environment

• Cyclo-Terre – Arnaud Jungo & Youri Vezza: human-powered agricultural machine designed for small farms.
• Laboratoire Collaboratif de Résilience – Dani Varadi, Claire Davanne, Daniel Create : program for parents and children to learn about permaculture and resilience together.
• Recyclage des eaux usées – Christel Raphoz: infinite water purification stand
• Cuisine Mobile – Aziadé Cirlini, Timo Tiffert, Laura Van Der Tas, Arture Maider, Masen Al Saghir, Matylda Florez: a sustainable community kitchen on a trailer to make use of Geneva’s food surpluses.
• All About Water – Kira Rudi and Lisa Lachat: a summer camp to teach children the scientific tools to understand and protect water and the environment.
• Aquascope – Céline Tchnernin: a mobile and intuitive detector to check the amount of microplastics in our drinking water.
• Climate Curriculum Labs – Jordi Buckley: interactive educational platform to understand the effects of climate change in Geneva.

GCSP Prize for Transformative Futures in Peace and Security

This Geneve Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) prize seeks to reward groundbreaking concepts that offer exceptional promise in addressing peace and security challenges. Concepts from a wide variety of fields may be eligible for consideration, including but not restricted to, transformative technologies, pandemics, biothreats, autonomous weapons, climate change, human rights, cyber security, education or disarmament.

The deadline to apply is 20 March 2026. The winners will be announced in May 2026.

2025 Winners

• First place: « Spacetalk » offers a digital platform for managing global space traffic. Spacetalk aims to enable global coordination to prevent collisions, reduce the creation of new space debris, minimize the number of maneuvers to extend satellite lifespans, avoid the escalation of conflicts in space. To meet these challenges, Spacetalk has established partnerships with EPFL and the Swiss Armed Forces.
• Second place: “Prescient”  is a programme that focuses on health security related to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) incidents, while addressing the impact of geopolitical tensions in Europe. It supports policy makers in anticipating and preparing for health security risks through scenario-based analysis and futures-oriented policy recommendations.
• Third place: “AI-based Humanitarian Dashboard for Disaster Prediction” submitted by Humanitarian Observatory of the Argentine Red Cross in Buenos Aires.  This Humanitarian Observatory stands as a hub for both innovation and humanitarian action, using evidence based research to identify needs, generate knowledge, and design effective solutions. Notable innovations include this AI-based dashboard which uses AI to map potential crises and qualitative studies that inform national health and resilience strategies.

WWF Youth Conservation Leadership Award

The WWF-US Youth Conservation Leadership Award celebrates the achievements of exceptional young people working toward conservation solutions in the United States. It seeks to inspire other young people to get involved in opportunities within their communities.

This award recognizes and celebrates youth leaders in their community who are making outstanding contributions for the environment—leading initiatives across issues, including addressing the impacts of climate change, building community resilience in the face of environmental challenges, biodiversity, wildlife conservation, food waste, habitat protection, and more.

The deadline for applying to the 2026-2027 WWF-US Youth Conservation Leadership Award is 18 September 2026

2050Today Awards

The 2050Today Awards aim to annually reward two institutions that have signed the 2050Today Charter for the concrete implementation of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction action plan. Through this award, participating institutions can showcase their initiatives and commitment to the decarbonization of International Geneva.

The 2026 applications are open from 15 April to 30 June 2026.

2025 Winners

• Low Carbon Award: International Olympic Committee – between 2016-2019 and 2021-2024 benchmark emissions, the IOC has reduced its carbon footprint by 30%, an intermediate step toward its goal of a 50% reduction by 2030. To achieve this goal, the IOC has set a carbon budget for each department.
• Engagement Award: Permanent Mission of Mexico – recognized for their Best Practices Handbook which is a key component of the communications and training pillar of their Environmental Action Plan and has been distributed to more than 400 staff members at the PM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its message is clear: with simple changes in how we work, consume, and interact with our environment, we can reduce our ecological footprint, from every office and every individual.

 

Les Clés de l’Avenir | ZeroWaste Switzerland Awards

Are you leading a practical initiative promoting zero waste and the circular economy in Geneva? Showcase your commitment and inspire the whole canton – and beyond! The winners will be announced at the ceremony on 23 November.

‘Les Clés de l’Avenir’ is the new celebration of practical solutions and the ongoing transition in Geneva. Organised as the official opening of Climate Week at the Maison de l’Avenir on 23 November 2026, these awards highlight local initiatives and projects focused on reducing waste at source and minimising waste, as well as on the circular economy.

This event has been designed as a warm and welcoming space for discussion. By sharing your experience, you will help other stakeholders in the canton to take the plunge, find practical solutions and draw inspiration from approaches that have already proven their worth in practice.

The deadline to apply for the award is 30 September 2026.

 St Andrews Prize for the Environment

The St Andrews Prize for the Environment is seeking projects from around the world that have made a tangible contribution to addressing a major environmental challenge, align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and have the ambition to build on and extend their impact. Projects should demonstrate meaningful environmental impact and offer opportunities for learning and inspiration, both for those working in the field and for the next generation of environmental leaders. The Prize was established in 1998 to recognise significant contributions to environmental conservation. Since its launch, it has attracted more than 6,600 entries from projects addressing issues including human-animal conflict, environmental justice and urban regeneration. More than US$2.8 million has been awarded to 26 winners and 52 runners-up. The latest winner, announced earlier this year, is the South Rupununi Conservation Society, recognised for its work to transform environmental education for Indigenous schoolchildren in Guyana. The winner of the 2026–2027 Prize will receive US$95,000, while runner(s)-up will receive US$20,000. The prize package also includes a two-week internship visit from a University of St Andrews student, funded by the University.

The deadline to apply for the award is 25 August 2026.