What does environmental advocacy look like in 2026? According to the Goldman Environmental Prize, it looks like women. Women who are stepping into leadership to build movements from the ground up.

This year marks the first time the prize, often called the “Green Nobel,” has gone to an all-female group. Now in its 37th year, the award marks a milestone and reflects a long-overlooked reality: women have always been at the center of environmental action.

“Throughout the history of the environmental movement, women have been at the forefront—innovating, shaping ideas, driving advocacy, and elevating public awareness—but they often don’t receive the recognition they deserve,” Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, told Forbes over email. “Recognition of women in the environmental community is long overdue. While each Prize winner received her Prize on merits unrelated to gender, we believe that the first all-women cohort is a powerful representation of the critical role that women play.”

Across vastly different landscapes and lived realities, the 2026 cohort is scaling grassroots movements to push back against the powerful entities threatening the land, water and resources in their communities.

This year’s laureates, who each receive $200,000, are:

  • Sarah Finch, who led a landmark legal challenge against fossil fuel development in the UK.
  • Alannah Acaq Hurley, who defended Indigenous land rights and waterways from mining threats in Alaska.
  • Borim Kim, who pushed for accountability on industrial pollution affecting communities in South Korea.
  • Yuvelis Morales Blanco, who led efforts to defend forests and rural land from extractive projects in Colombia.
  • Theonila Roka Matbob, who led efforts to hold mining operations accountable for environmental damage in Papua New Guinea.
  • Iroro Tanshi, who developed conservation and biodiversity protection programs in Nigeria.

One explanation for this concentration of women in environmental advocacy work is unequal impact. Sutton argues that women and girls disproportionately experience the effects of climate change and environmental crises: “During crises like floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather events, women often shoulder increased unpaid labor and caregiving responsibilities. Women are also disproportionately responsible for domestic tasks like cleaning, laundry, and water collection, which gives them increased sensitivity to environmental impacts.”

A growing body of research backs this up. The UN Women Gender Snapshot 2024 projects that by 2050, climate change could drive an additional 158 million more women and girls into poverty (16 million higher than the figure for men and boys). According to UNICEF, when climate disasters strike, girls are 2.5 times more likely to leave the classroom. Research published in the Korean Journal of Family Medicine finds that rising temperatures, water scarcity, and climate displacement undermine menstrual hygiene and worsen period poverty . A whole host of medical studies have further linked climate change to higher risks of pregnancy complications . And in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, research found that in the hardest-hit areas, intimate partner violence against women rose by five to eight times .

Even as these impacts intensify, women remain underrepresented in environmental decision-making. Sutton points to International Union for Conservation of Nature data that found women hold just 15% of ministerial jobs in the environmental sector and 23% of senior positions in environmental organizations.

The contrast is stark: women are among the most affected by environmental crises, yet are too often left out of the spaces where solutions are found. This year’s Goldman Environmental Prize doesn’t close that gap, but it elevates the work of women driving real change on the ground. It’s a spotlight that laureate Sarah Finch hopes inspires more women in the future. “Women are often the first affected and the worst affected by climate change,” writes Finch in a statement to Forbes . “Women are also less likely to have a voice in society, less likely to rise to positions of authority. So we really need to encourage women to speak and lead in the climate movement.”