The United Nations Environment Programme on Dec. 10 announced its five “2025 Champions of the Earth,” the U.N.’s highest environmental honor. Since 2005, UNEP’s Champions of the Earth has recognized individuals, groups and organizations who have contributed significantly toward transforming the environment for the better. The award celebrates four categories of contribution: policy leadership, inspiration and action, entrepreneurial vision, and science and innovation. This year’s awardees are engaged in issues of climate change, from seeking climate justice within courts and designing climate-resilient buildings, to combating deforestation, supporting ecosystem restoration and shaping action on methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Previous awardees include Honduran Indigenous activist Berta Cáceres, former U.S. vice president Al Gore, Indian ecologist Madhav Gadgil, the South Africa-based woman-majority Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit, and Sônia Guajajara, Brazil’s first minister of Indigenous peoples. The following are the 2025 Champions of the Earth: The Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a youth-led NGO, was recognized for policy leadership. The NGO represents students from Pacific island states who campaigned for and secured a historic ruling on climate justice from the International Court of Justice this year. “These students are inspiration to us all and show that we all have the potential to be changemakers,” Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, said in a statement. Supriya Sahu, a forest official in India, was recognized in the “inspiration and action” category for her work on climate-resilient schools and social housing projects as well as ecosystem restoration to expand forest and mangrove cover. “We cannot…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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