On November 5, in Rio de Janeiro, the five 2025 Earthshot Prize winners were announced. The Earthshot Prize is an annual award ceremony run by Prince William, launched in 2021 and scheduled to run until 2030. It awards one million British pounds to five organizations – the winners for each Earthshot, or category. This year’s winners were: re.green, The City of Bogotá, The High Seas Treaty, Lagos Fashion Week and Friendship. They won the prize for Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-free World and Fix Our Climate, respectively, and for their innovation and progress in fighting for our planet.
re.green, the winner of the “Protect and Restore Nature” Earthshot, is dedicated to making forest conservation profitable. They pick out the most restorable sites and then partner with local organizations to populate them with native plants and trees. Carbon credits and sustainable timber allow them to make a profit, ensuring that partners have an incentive to look after their surroundings. re.green is actively restoring over 12,000 hectares of forests, and they have planted more than six million trees. The land is not sold off after being restored, allowing re.green to prevent a relapse and promote co-operation with local communities to monitor its condition going forward. They aim to eventually restore over a million hectares, and with how fast they have been growing, I would not put it past them.
The winner for “Clean Our Air” was not exactly an organization, but the entire city of Bogotá. A few decades ago, if you suggested that Bogotá might win an award for its air quality, you would have been ridiculed. Between 1998 and 2005, it had seven times more pollution than the World Health Organization’s current recommended limit. While air quality is a struggle for most large cities, Bogotá’s reliance on private motor vehicles kept the city doused in smog for a long time. Recently, they’ve turned things around. Bogotá’s leaders restricted heavy freight vehicles and promoted cycling as an alternative to cars. They’ve built more green spaces around the city, including reclaiming some road space and even constructed the city’s first train line.
At 1,400 electric buses, they boast one of the largest fleets in the world, and they are building cable car lines as well. From planting tens of thousands of trees, to building the largest bike network in Latin America, it’s no wonder that they reduced their emissions by 24% in just seven years. By 2028, a decade after they began the reforms, Bogotá’s leaders predict they will eliminate more than 300,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. That is roughly equivalent to preserving a 230 square mile forest; the size of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island combined. There is no doubt that they deserve this award, and I am excited to see where they go from here.
The High Seas Treaty won “Revive Our Oceans,” and like Bogotá, they were another relatively non-conventional candidate. Their mission is to safeguard unclaimed waters, the so-called “High Seas,” through an alliance between Indigenous Peoples, local communities and the governments of over 145 countries. The Treaty will come into full effect this January and will work to protect ocean life and prevent overfishing. Crucially, they have clauses to ensure developing countries are able to maintain their economies and ways of life. The treaty has been decades in the making, and next January will mark a huge step forward for international ocean conservation.
The second-to-last winner is Lagos Fashion Week, who won the Earthshot “Build a Waste-Free World.” They focus on raising awareness about overproduction and overconsumption of clothes, as well as ways to fight it. Founded fifteen years ago, Lagos Fashion Week is Africa’s largest fashion event, and it continues to redefine the fashion industry in Africa and beyond. A designer must provide evidence of their commitment to sustainability to present their works at Lagos Fashion Week. This can mean sourcing materials sustainably or even using greener methods to transport them.Whatever form it takes, this policy ensures ethical practices are upheld across the field. If designers want to be on Africa’s biggest stage, they must distance themselves from the harmful practices they helped perpetuate. Lagos Fashion Week shows how the decisions of the few (event organizers) can impact the actions of the many (designers), which in turn improves the life of everybody on Earth.
The winner of “Fix Our Climate” is Friendship, a social justice and environmentalism-focused group based in Bangladesh. Friendship aims to fight the consequences of climate change directly and protect Bangladeshi citizens threatened by environmental shifts. Many impoverished people in Bangladesh are entirely reliant on agriculture and aquaculture. When those resources disappear, so do their livelihoods. Friendship aims to prevent this devastation before it arises, and if all else fails, combat it directly. They have provided more than 8.3 million days’ worth of emergency food, supply more than 7.5 million people with healthcare each year and ensure 80,000 people have consistent access to potable water. They are also replanting mangrove forests and swamps and have already planted 650,000 trees to date. These trees serve as protection against storms and water but also help sequester carbon as they grow. They built floating hospitals and movable schools and raised buildings on plinths, all to protect the vulnerable populations left behind in the quest for wealth. Friendship truly deserves their name.
From cities, to treaties to non-profits saving lives, the winners of this year’s Earthshot Prize continue to give me hope for the years to come; and I hope they have inspired readers to take action as well. Things may be rough, but as long as people keep fighting for what is right, not all is lost.
