By Abbas Nazil
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recognized five exceptional climate leaders as its 2025 Champions of the Earth, highlighting individuals and organizations driving significant action on climate change and environmental sustainability.
The award, which is UNEP’s highest environmental honor, celebrates those delivering innovative solutions across critical areas such as climate justice, sustainable cooling, resilient buildings, forest conservation, and methane emissions reduction.
UNEP Executive Director, Inger Andersen, stressed the growing urgency of global climate impacts, noting that leadership and innovation across all sectors of society are essential to address the escalating crisis and inspire transformative action worldwide.
The first of the 2025 laureates is a youth-led NGO from the Pacific Islands, which has successfully secured a landmark opinion from the International Court of Justice affirming states’ legal obligations to prevent climate harm and protect human rights.
Their efforts are reshaping global climate law, while empowering vulnerable nations to demand stronger environmental accountability.
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Forests in Tamil Nadu, India, was honored for her leadership in sustainable cooling and ecosystem restoration.
Her initiatives have generated 2.5 million green jobs, expanded forest cover, integrated heat adaptation into infrastructure, and benefited approximately 12 million people, establishing a replicable model for climate resilience.
Mariam Issoufou, Principal and Founder of Mariam Issoufou Architects in Niger and France, received recognition for her entrepreneurial vision in sustainable architecture.
By utilizing local materials and cultural heritage, she is pioneering climate-resilient buildings across the Sahel, incorporating passive cooling techniques that reduce indoor temperatures by up to 10°C without air conditioning, thus inspiring a new generation of designers.
Brazilian research institute Imazon was awarded for science and innovation, leveraging AI-driven geospatial tools to monitor and curb deforestation, strengthen forest governance, support thousands of legal cases, and reveal the scale of illegal deforestation in the Amazon.
Manfredi Caltagirone, recognized posthumously for lifetime achievement, served as head of UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory.
His work advanced transparency and science-based action on methane emissions, influenced the EU’s first regulation on methane, and shaped global energy policy.
This year’s laureates are responding to urgent climate threats, with global temperatures projected to exceed 1.5°C within the next decade and adaptation costs for developing nations potentially reaching $310–$365 billion annually by 2035.
UNEP underscores that efforts to reduce methane emissions, restore forests, implement sustainable cooling, and ensure climate justice are critical to safeguarding ecosystems, improving air quality, creating jobs, and protecting vulnerable communities.
The recognition of these leaders demonstrates that impactful climate action is possible and highlights pathways for other governments, organizations, and individuals to implement effective solutions to the planet’s pressing environmental challenges.
