Sarah Finch Wins Goldman Prize in First All-Female Cohort
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- Sarah Finch won the Goldman Environmental Prize after her 2024 UK Supreme Court case established that fossil fuel project approvals must account for downstream emissions from burning extracted coal, oil, and gas.
- The Finch ruling has since been cited in decisions against new North Sea oil concessions, the UK's first deep coalmine in 30 years, and plans for large-scale factory farms, according to Greenpeace UK's Mel Evans.
- The 2026 Goldman Prize is the first all-female cohort in the award's 37-year history, with one winner from each of the world's six primary regions.
- The five other winners are Iroro Tanshi (Nigeria, bat conservation against wildfires), Borim Kim (South Korea, youth-led climate litigation), Alannah Acaq Hurley (Alaska, stopping a planned open-pit mine in Bristol Bay), Yuvelis Morales Blanco (Colombia, blocking commercial fracking), and Theonila Roka Matbob (Papua New Guinea, forcing Rio Tinto to address Panguna mine devastation).
- The Goldman Environmental Prize, founded in 1989, has honored 239 winners from 98 nations to date, with 112 women among them, and several alumni have gone on to become government officials, heads of state, and Nobel laureates.
- John Goldman, vice-president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said he was "especially thrilled to honour our first-ever cohort of six women" and called the winners "proof positive that courage, hard work and hope" drive environmental progress.
Why it matters: The Finch ruling has become a cross-sector legal tool in the UK, blocking not just oil and coal projects but also factory farm plans — meaning one Supreme Court precedent is actively reshaping what the government can permit. The 2026 cohort's all-women lineup marks a first for a prize that has run since 1989, putting the foundation's global spotlight squarely on women-led legal and grassroots campaigns.
