Woman who won legal case over greenhouse emissions awarded top environmental prize

The woman whose campaigning set a legal precedent in the UK that stopped thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions has been awarded one of the world’s most prestigious environmental prizes alongside five other women from around the globe.

A supreme court ruling in a case brought by Sarah Finch has been cited in decisions against new oil concessions in the North Sea, the UK’s first new deep coalmine for 30 years and even plans for new large-scale factory farms.

On Monday she was named as one of six recipients of the Goldman Environmental prize, awarded annually to honour the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world.

Finch was the named applicant on a legal case that in 2024 became a turning point in UK climate law. In the Finch ruling, the supreme court stipulated that any decision to approve new fossil fuel projects must take into account the effect the burning of coal, oil or gas extracted would have on the climate.

Sarah Finch with supporters and part of her legal team outside the court of appeal before the legal challenge that ultimately stopped thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Photograph: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty Images

“It has been a gamechanger for environmental campaigners,” said Mel Evans, the head of campaigns at Greenpeace UK. “The ruling also aligned UK law more closely with climate science, which has always shown how the main impact of the fossil fuel industry on climate change comes from burning its products.”

Finch has been awarded the prize along with five other women, drawn from each of the world’s six primary regions, making up the first all-female roster of winners in the Goldman prize’s 37-year history. They are:

• Iroro Tanshi, a Nigerian conservation ecologist who launched a successful, community-led campaign to protect endangered bats from human induced wildfires;

• Borim Kim, a South Korean activist who won the continent’s first successful youth-led climate litigation, finding her government’s climate policy to be in violation of the rights of future generations;

• Alannah Acaq Hurley, a leader of the Yup’ik Indigenous people led a campaign that stopped what would have been the continent’s largest open-pit mine, in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region;

• Yuvelis Morales Blanco, a youth activist who mobilised others in her Afro-descendant community in Puerto Wilches against two drilling projects, preventing the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia;

• Theonila Roka Matbob, of Papua New Guinea, whose campaign forced Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, to sign an agreement to address devastation caused by its Panguna mine.

Founded in 1989 by philanthropists Rhoda and Richard Goldman, the Goldman prize has to date honoured 239 winners – including 112 women – from 98 nations. Many have gone on to take up positions as government officials, heads of state, NGO leaders and Nobel prize laureates.

Finch and fellow activists take part in a march protesting four new oil wells at Horse Hill in Horley in 2021. Photograph: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty Images

“True leaders can be found all around us,” said John Goldman, the vice-president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, hailing the winners. “The 2026 prize winners are proof positive that courage, hard work and hope go a long way toward creating meaningful progress.

“I am especially thrilled to honour our first-ever cohort of six women, as this is a powerful reflection of the absolutely central role that women play in the environmental community globally.”