All Laureates

It might have been the neighbor’s monkey which came downstairs to join her for piano lessons, or the wildlife club that she started in primary school in Kampala, Uganda. But from a very early age, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, this year’s Champion of the Earth for Science and Innovation, knew she wanted to work with animals.

“Basically,…

If a picture is worth a thousand words, for Maria Kolesnikova, this year’s Champion of the Earth for Entrepreneurial Vision, a picture was worth starting a movement.

It was 2016 and Kolesnikova, a public relations professional, then aged 28, was volunteering for MoveGreen, a youth-…

When Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley stood up in front of the United Nations General Assembly earlier this year, she was not in a mood to pull punches. In front of world leaders, she decried the “faceless few” who were pushing the world towards a climate catastrophe and imperilling the future of small-island states, like her own.…

To most people, fins, masks and neoprene wetsuits are recreational gear. But to the non-profit group SeaWomen of Melanesia, this year’s Champion of the Earth for Inspiration and Action, they are the tools of change.

Clad in diving gear, the group’s 30-plus members chart the health of the fragile coral reefs that surround Melanesia, a…

When Sir David Attenborough was a boy, he spent much of his free time bounding through abandoned quarries in the English countryside, hammer in hand. His prey: fossilized ammonites, spiral-shaped mollusks that lived in the time of the dinosaurs.

To a young Attenborough, the fossils were like buried treasures and he was amazed to be the…

For his persistence and commitment to action against climate change for Pacific Island Nations, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji as a 2020 Champion of the Earth for Policy Leadership. 

Under the Prime Minister’s leadership, Fiji has taken bold and decisive actions to draw…

The revolution began with magic markers for Robert Bullard, winner of this year’s Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement award. It was 1978 and the American sociologist and environmental activist was three years out of grad school when his wife, a lawyer, told him one day she was suing the state of Texas.

“There was a waste…

The West African nation of Burkina Faso is landlocked, arid and is home to an agricultural innovation that has revolutionized farming in African countries battling the effects of drought and climate change. That’s thanks to the patience and determination of Yacouba Sawadogo, winner of the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2020 Champions of…

What defines Mindy Lubber as an advocate, and what makes her such a fitting winner of the 2020 Champions of the Earth award for Entrepreneurial Vision, is her ability to change not only hearts and minds but also the way money flows around the world. 

Lubber is the head of Ceres, a non…

Nemonte Nenquimo didn’t ask to be a celebrity, not to become friends with Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, nor to be named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world. 

What the indigenous rights activist wanted was for her four-year-old daughter to live in peace, surrounded by the richness of the Amazon…