The UN Environment Programme is delighted to work with partners to recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the Champions of the Earth laureates.
It is thanks to their generous efforts that we can continue to celebrate their success. Our partners support the journeys of the Champions of the Earth and Young Champions of the Earth.
Weibo has committed to increasing efforts to address environmental protection and sustainable development, having already supported several UN Environment Programme campaigns across its networks in recent years, including World Environment Day and the Wild for Life campaign.
The 2026 call is now closed.
The Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour and celebrates individuals and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.
2026 Focus: Ocean Health
In 2026, the award focuses on Ocean Health. The 2026 call seeks nominations of individuals and organizations whose work delivers solutions to restore marine and coastal ecosystems, reduce climate risks, and create sustainable livelihoods.
Key focus areas
- Pollution prevention – Addressing pollution from source to sea, including wastewater, nutrients, chemicals, and sediments, through solutions that connect land, freshwater, coasts, and the ocean.
- Ecosystem protection and restoration – Strengthening ocean resilience, safeguarding and restoring coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and other vital habitats, and reducing climate risks for coastal communities.
- Sustainable blue economies – Supporting fair and sustainable livelihoods that protect nature while advancing economic opportunity.
- Science, data, and cooperation – Expanding scientific research, data, finance, and regional partnerships, including through Regional Seas programmes, to accelerate collective impact.
Nominations were open to individuals and organizations worldwide and may be submitted under one of four categories: - Policy leadership
- Inspiration and action
- Entrepreneurial vision
- Science and innovation
Selection process
UNEP staff and subject matter experts carefully select Champions from a global pool of nominations. The nomination process is open to everyone, and past cycles have seen over 2,500 submissions from around the world.
Selection criteria
Nominees are evaluated based on:
- Impact: Have the nominee’s actions resulted in profound environmental gains or demonstrated significant potential for replication and scaling?
- Novelty: Has the nominee done or achieved something new and innovative?
- Influence: How compelling and inspiring is the nominee’s story?
From grassroots changemakers and corporate leaders to political pioneers and research institutions, UNEP celebrates Champions who are taking bold action to protect and restore our planet.
Established in 2005, the Champions of the Earth award is the United Nations’ highest environmental honour.
Each year, UNEP recognizes individuals and organizations advancing innovative, scalable and sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. Champions transform economies, drive political progress, advance environmental justice and safeguard our natural resources for future generations.
2026 Focus: Ocean Health
In 2026, the Champions of the Earth award shines a spotlight on Ocean Health. The award recognizes leaders delivering solutions that restore marine and coastal ecosystems, reduce pollution, strengthen climate resilience and support sustainable blue economies.
Award categories
Champions of the Earth are honoured in four categories:
- Policy Leadership
Individuals influencing or advancing global, regional or national environmental action through policy interventions. They shape dialogue, drive commitments and champion systemic change. - Inspiration and Action
Leaders taking bold steps to inspire positive change. They lead by example, mobilize communities and motivate millions to protect our planet. - Entrepreneurial Vision
Visionaries challenging the status quo to build a sustainable future. They develop new systems, technologies and business models that redefine what is possible. - Science and Innovation
Trailblazers pushing the boundaries of research and technology for transformative environmental benefit. They generate knowledge and breakthrough solutions that accelerate impact.
In 2025, the Champions of the Earth award marked its 20th anniversary. Since its inception in 2005, UNEP has recognized 127 laureates—including 28 world leaders, 77 individuals and 22 organizations—whose work continues to shape a more sustainable future for all.
Minister Izabella Teixeira is a career employee of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), which she joined in 1984 as an Environmental Analyst. Over her 28 years as a civil servant she has held several high-level management and advisory positions in the federal area. She took office as Minister of the Environment in 2010.
As a result of her notable performance representing the Brazilian Government at the UN Climate Conference in Cancun and the UN Biodiversity Conference in Nagoya, she was invited by the UN Secretary-General to join, in 2010 and 2012, the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, composed of authorities of another 12 countries. On 24 September 2012, Minister Teixeira was nominated again by the UN Secretary-General to join the High Level Panel on Post-2015 Development, which will propose the new post-2015 development agenda to the UN General Assembly.
Minister Teixeira is continuously recognized as a bold and visionary leader who played a key role in the challenging feat of reversing the deforestation in the Amazon forest, as proven by the achievement of an 84 per cent reduction in deforestation over the last eight years. From an annual loss of 27,772 sq km in 2004 to 4,571 sq km in 2012, this remarkable feat is a tribute to her courage to push against the tide of destruction and is a significant initiative from Brazil on climate change mitigation. Apart from the prevention and control of deforestation, the land use planning policies implemented by her resulted in 250,000 sq km of conservation areas or the equivalent of 75 per cent of the global forest protected areas.
Her long-standing career in the service of the environment was positively marked by the successful hosting by Brazil of the Rio+20 (UN Conference on Sustainable Development) and the 2012 World Environment Day.
Google Earth has become a powerful tool to show the scale of problems and illustrate solutions, which has encouraged a shift in public policy, funding for projects, and even in people’s fundamental understanding of the world. The software has proven to be an effective tool for monitoring the state of the environment, for example illustrating the scale of deforestation or the planet’s massive potential for renewable energy.
Google Earth Engine brings together the world's satellite imagery — trillions of scientific measurements dating back almost 40 years — and makes it available online with tools for scientists, independent researchers, and nations to mine this massive warehouse of data to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences on the Earth's surface. Applications include: detecting deforestation, classifying land cover, estimating forest biomass and carbon, and mapping the world’s road-free areas.
Google Earth was used to help the rescue workers who saved more than 4,000 people after Hurricane Katrina. In Australia, a scientist used Google Earth to discover a previously unknown fringing coral reef in a region marked for an oil and natural gas push.
Through Google Earth Outreach, an engagement initiative with non-profit organizations, Dreaming New Mexico used Google Earth to create a future vision of New Mexico in 2020 should it switch from fossil fuels to the renewable energy abundantly available within the state, enabling policy makers to visualize the possibilities of a greener energy future. A Brazilian indigenous tribe, the “Surui”, has been able to use Google Earth to prevent the deforestation and ruin of their area, and to preserve their culture and history.
Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo is responsible for achieving Biosphere Reserve status for the Sierra Gorda under an exceptional public-private co-management system. Through her work and advocacy, 33 per cent of the State of Querétaro is now protected as a Biosphere Reserve. In 2008, the Sierra Gorda in the neighboring state of Guanajuato also achieved Biosphere Reserve status, resulting in another 280,000 hectares coming under conservation management.
Her success comes from her innovative approach to finding sustainable development solutions for poor communities that are often burdened with the costs associated with conserving nature. But through Pati's efforts, they are now environmental service providers and derive part of their livelihood from protecting local ecosystems.
Pati was responsible for the federal administration of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve for 14 years. Before that, she spent eight years as a UN Development Programme Coordinator, gathering accolades and securing cash and in-kind resources in excess of US$45 million. She has drawn considerable national and international attention to the region and has raised significant resources from the private and public sectors to support a “conservation economy”.
Over the past 25 years, Pati and Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG) have engaged more than 34,000 people in community environmental education programs, solid waste management, soil restoration, productive diversification, and conservation. Pati and her team have developed simple replication strategies through online and on-site courses provided by the Earth Center training center. The “Learning and Teaching for a Sustainable Future UNESCO-Sierra Gorda” diploma is a certified course that teaches the lessons learned in the SGBR to students graduating from the training center. In 2010 alone, the course served 900 students.
She is also a pioneer in valuing natural capital. Sierra Gorda obtained carbon offsets validated by the Rainforest Alliance under the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance and the Voluntary Carbon Standard, which is the first validated forest project of its kind in Mexico. These tools have been adopted by the state Government and are also in the process of being validated by the National Forestry Commission in order to be easily replicated in other parts of the country.
Hundreds of families in Sierra Gorda receive more than US$2 million from the sale of carbon credits. Furthermore, Pati has spearheaded the development of a “Basket of Ecosystem Services and Products,” a brand new regional catalogue of environmental products and services.
Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is a leading business and political figure, championing the development and deployment of renewable energy and clean technology solutions.
In 2006, Dr. Al Jaber spearheaded the launch of Masdar, an Abu Dhabi-based commercial venture aimed at advancing clean energy to the forefront of the global power business. Through its investments, Masdar is deploying large-scale renewable energy projects in Abu Dhabi and across the globe, while encouraging the technology’s adoption through smaller-scale aid projects in various countries, including Afghanistan, Tonga and Seychelles.
Amongst its flagship projects is Masdar City, a 6km2 low-carbon, low-waste development in Abu Dhabi, which employs cutting-edge sustainable urban planning and architectural practices while also testing advanced energy efficient building technologies and materials. Masdar City is already home of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology campus—established in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2009, Dr. Al Jaber coordinated and led Masdar’s participation in the UAE’s successful bid to host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi. In the same year, he was invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to serve as a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC).
In 2010, Dr. Al Jaber was appointed UAE Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change, where he is responsible for developing and advocating the UAE’s position on international climate negotiations. In 2011, he was selected by the UN Secretary General to serve as a member of the High Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All.
Samson Parashina, a Maasai warrior, son of a local chief and respected safari guide, has shown amazing commitment to developing sustainable green economy models for Kenya’s Kuku Group Ranch, land communally owned by the Maasai community.
Parashina started as a waiter at an ecotourism lodge, but swiftly rose to become the President of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust (MWCT) – a grass-roots community trust preserving the wilderness, wildlife and cultural heritage of the Tsavo-Amboseli ecosystem. The ecosystem is recognized for its high biodiversity, significant tourism revenues and as a vital watershed providing freshwater to millions of Kenyans. Three national parks - Tsavo, Amboseli and Chyulu Hills - lie within a human-dominated landscape and the overall health of this ecosystem is reliant on the sustainable management of the lands between the protected areas by the local communities that own them.
The trust’s success has taken its profile global, with actor Edward Norton, the UN’s Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity, a board member. Parashina, Norton and two other Maasai completed the 2009 New York marathon to raise awareness and funding for the trust.
Under Parashina’s strong leadership, the community agreed to appoint MWCT as the community’s manager of natural resources. The trust ensures that the community is protected through sustainable management of their natural resources, protecting the long-term viability of the ecosystem and traditional community livelihoods.
The trust, which employs over 200 locals and has an annual budget of over US$1 million, is developing sustainable financing mechanisms and partnering with Conservation International and Wildlife Works to carry out a REDD+ carbon feasibility study. MWCT is also coordinating a landmark collaboration to protect the Chyulu Forest-Mizima Springs watershed, which provides fresh water for millions of Kenyans. Finally, in an area where human-wildlife conflicts are a major problem, MWCT is pioneering a model where tourism surcharges are used to fund Wildlife Pays, a programme that compensates livestock herders for losses to wildlife predation in exchange for full protection of predators.
"Responsibility is more important than growth", runs one of the company mottos of China’s BROAD Group.
BROAD is a world leader in the manufacture of central air-conditioning systems that use diesel or natural gas instead of electricity to cool office buildings, shopping malls and factories. BROAD states that its non-electric air conditioning units are 200% more energy efficient and that CO2 emissions are 4 times lower than traditional models.
BROAD, which is based in Changsha, Hunan Province, was established by Zhang Yue with a mere US$3,000 in 1988. Today, the company’s air conditioners are the market leader in China and BROAD exports its products to some 60 countries around the world.
As well as regularly featuring in lists of China’s wealthiest people, founder Zhang Yue has become one of the most outspoken voices on the environment in China, advocating, among other things, for tighter government regulations on insulation and building standards and for the decentralization of power plants.
BROAD prides itself on its green credentials and lists protecting the environment, energy conservation and reducing greenhouse gases among its key company goals.
Indeed, BROAD states that the cumulative effect of all its products sold to date has led to emissions savings of around 90 million tons of CO2, 1 million tons of sulphur dioxide and 10,000 tons of CFCs.
BROAD has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact since 2001, and in 2008, it joined the Climate Group - an independent, not-for-profit organization working internationally with government and business leaders to advance smart policies and technologies to cut global emissions and accelerate a clean industrial revolution.
"When I set up my business, I challenged myself to create wealth. Now, I have completely shifted the focus of this business towards the direction of reducing emissions. I’ve taken on the challenge of climate change", said Zhang Yue.
"With this award, people will start to notice our work and we will be able to influence them to pay more attention to energy efficiency, whether as an individual or as a business."
