| Goldman Environmental Prize | |
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 The winners of the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House | |
| Website | goldmanprize |
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists.
Awardees are named from each of the world's six geographic regions: [1] Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The award is given by the Goldman Environmental Foundation headquartered in San Francisco, California. [1] The Prize is often referred to as the Green Nobel. [2]
The Goldman Environmental Prize was created in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. [1] As of 2019 [update] , the award amount is $200,000. [3]
The winners are selected by an international jury who receive confidential nominations from a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals. [4] Prize winners participate in a 10-day tour of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for an awards ceremony and presentation, news conferences, media briefings and meetings with political, public policy, financial and environmental leaders. [5] The award ceremony features short documentary videos on each winner, narrated by Robert Redford through the year 2020, [6] [7] and Sigourney Weaver beginning in 2021. [8]
The 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony marking the 30th anniversary took place on April 29, 2019, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. [9] [6] A second award ceremony took place on May 1, 2019, in Washington, D.C. [9] [6]
The 2020, 2021, and 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremonies took place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with pre-recorded videos premiering on November 30, 2020, [10] [11] June 15, 2021, [8] [12] and May 25, 2022, respectively. [13] [14]
Live ceremonies resumed in 2023, taking place in San Francisco on April 24 and in Washington, D.C., on April 26. [15]
The Global 500 Roll of Honour was an award given from 1987 to 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award recognized the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. A successor system of UNEP awards called Champions of the Earth started in 2005.
AirlanggaUniversity is the second-oldest university in Indonesia and also a public university located in Surabaya, East Java. Despite being officially established by Indonesian Government Regulation in 1954, Universitas Airlangga was first founded in 1948 as a distant branch of the University of Indonesia, with roots dating back to 1913. It started with a medical school and a school of dentistry. Now Universitas Airlangga hosts 16 faculties with more than 35,000 students and 1,570 faculty members. Universitas Airlangga has university hospitals for the faculties of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, and Dentistry, as well as a tropical infection hospital for its Institute of Tropical Disease. The university is also equipped with biosafety level three facilities.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established Champions of the Earth in 2005 as an annual awards programme to recognize outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors and from civil society.
Sarah Agnes James is a Neets'aii Gwich'in activist from Arctic Village, Alaska, USA, but was born in Fort Yukon "because that is where the hospital was. I grew up part of the time in Fort Yukon and Salmon River, but most of the time in Arctic Village, Alaska."James is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002, together with Jonathon Solomon and Norma Kassi. They received the prize for their efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from plans of oil exploration and drilling. Oil and gas exploration would disturb the life cycle of the Porcupine caribou, which has been a foundation for the Gwich'in culture since approximately 18,000 BC.
Rashida Bee is an Indian activist from Bhopal. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2004, together with Champa Devi Shukla. The two have struggled for justice for the surviving victims of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, when 20,000 people were killed, and organized campaigns and trials against those responsible for the disaster.
Richard N. Goldman was an American billionaire philanthropist who was the co-founder of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990 with his wife, Rhoda Haas Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. He founded the insurance company Goldman Insurance and Risk Management, and with his wife he established the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund in 1951.
Maria Elena Foronda Farro is a Peruvian sociologist and environmentalist. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003, for her campaigns of improving waste treatment from the country's fishmeal industry. She was elected as congresswoman for the region of Ancash in 2016 as a member of The Broad Front for Justice, Life, and Freedom.
The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially in promoting women's rights.
Yale World Fellows is an international fellowship program at Yale University for rising global leaders.
Diane Wilson is an American environmental activist, an anti-war activist, and an author. In 1989, she was a shrimp boat captain in Calhoun County, Texas, and she saw an Associated Press article saying that the county had the most toxic waste disposal of all counties in America. Texas produces the most amount of chemical waste than any other state in the United States, with the majority of the pollution concentrated on the state's Gulf Coast. Wilson began a campaign against Formosa Plastics, a Taiwanese chemical company then building a PVC facility near her town, with tactics including several hunger strikes and sinking her own boat to draw attention to the matter. In 1994 she won "zero discharge" agreements from Formosa and Alcoa.
The Genesis Prize is a $1 million annual prize awarded to Jewish people who have achieved significant professional success, in recognition of their accomplishments, contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values.
Rudi Putra is an Indonesian biologist who received a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2014 for his efforts to combat illegal logging, forest encroachment for palm oil production, and policies that open endangered ecosystems to mining and plantation industries.
Makoma Lekalakala is a South African activist who is the director of the Johannesburg branch of Earthlife Africa. Along with Liz McDaid, she was awarded the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize for the African region for their work on using the courts to stop a Russian-South African nuclear deal in 2017.
Zuzana Čaputová is a Slovak politician, lawyer and environmental activist who served as the fifth president of Slovakia from 2019 to 2024. Čaputová was the first woman to hold the presidency, as well as the youngest president in the history of Slovakia, elected at the age of 45.
Liz Chicaje Churay is an indigenous Peruvian leader who has contributed significantly to the protection of rainforests and rivers in the Loreto area of northeastern Peru, safeguarding the rights of the Yagua people. Thanks to her efforts, the Yaguas National Park was established in 2018. In January 2019 in Lima, she was awarded the Franco-German prize for human rights by the French and German ambassadors.
Prafulla Samantara is an Indian environmental activist from Odisha.
Nemonte Nenquimo is an Indigenous activist, author and member of the Waorani Nation from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador. She is the first female president of the Waorani of Pastaza (CONCONAWEP) and co-founder of the Indigenous-led nonprofit organization Ceibo Alliance. In 2020, she was named in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, the only Indigenous woman on the list and the second Ecuadorian to ever be named in its history. In recognition of her work, in 2020 the United Nations Environment Programme gave her the "Champions of the Earth" award in the category Inspiration and Action.
The Earthshot Prize is a global environmental award that is rewarded to five winners each year for their contributions towards environmentalism. It was first awarded in 2021 and is planned to be awarded annually until 2030. Each winner receives a grant of £1 million to continue their environmental work. The five categories were inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals; they are 'restoration and protection of nature', 'air cleanliness', 'ocean revival', 'waste-free living' and 'climate action'.
Sharon Lavigne is an American environmental justice activist in Louisiana focused on combating petrochemical complexes in Cancer Alley. She is the 2022 recipient of the Laetare Medal, the highest honor for American Catholics, and a 2021 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Destiny Watford is an American environmental activist. She won a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016.
