The Earthshot Prize, the environmental award launched by Prince William, says its community of 75 Finalists supported since 2020 has protected or restored 58 million hectares of land, forests and freshwater systems and protected, restored or improved 85 million hectares of ocean and coastline. The figures come from the Prize’s 2025/26 Impact Report and were repeated when it announced its 15 Finalists for 2026 in September. The Prize also says its Finalists have avoided or captured more than 18 million tonnes of CO₂e emissions, removed or avoided 465,000 tonnes of waste, saved 21 million tonnes of water and improved air quality in regions home to 600 million people. The figures are reported by the Earthshot Prize and are not presented as independently audited totals. The 2026 Finalists will compete for 5 £1 million prizes at the Earthshot Prize Awards Night in Mumbai on 17 November.
Earthshot Prize impact: 58 million hectares of land and 85 million hectares of ocean
The Prize’s impact page says that, since being selected, its Finalists have protected, restored or improved 85 million hectares of ocean and coastline and protected and restored 58 million hectares of land, forests and freshwater systems. It also reports 18 million tonnes of CO₂e emissions avoided or captured and 465,000 tonnes of waste removed, upcycled or avoided. The Prize’s June 2026 impact update additionally reported 21 million tonnes of water saved, reused or recycled and improved air quality in regions home to 600 million people. The figures describe different forms of environmental work and should not be interpreted as 143 million unique hectares. The 2 categories also use different definitions: the land figure covers land, forests and freshwater systems that have been protected and restored, while the ocean figure includes ocean and coastline that have been protected, restored and improved. The Prize does not state whether the areas in the 2 figures are mutually exclusive.The impact page gives examples of the work behind these figures. The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative now protects more than 5 million hectares of Kazakhstan’s steppe and supports the recovery and reintroduction of native endangered species including Przewalski’s horses. The Prize also highlights the Great Bubble Barrier, which it says has captured more than one million pieces of plastic in Amsterdam since its installation, and Equatic, which it says has secured $11.6 million in new funding to support a carbon dioxide removal facility in Singapore. These are figures and descriptions reported by the Earthshot Prize on its impact platform. The Prize also reports financial activity associated with its wider Finalist network. It says the Tropical Forest Forever Facility and Bonds for Ocean Conservation have secured $6.8 billion in new finance commitments, while early-stage for-profit Finalists have raised $500 million and non-profit and social enterprise Finalists have raised $300 million in funding and investment. The Prize separately says its digital content has been viewed 1.5 billion times since launch.
Earthshot Prize 2026 Finalists: 15 solutions across 5 environmental categories
The 2026 cohort is the 6th group of Earthshot Finalists. The 15 solutions were selected from nearly 7,000 nominations across 169 countries, with support from more than 363 nominators and an Expert Advisory Panel of more than 150 specialists. The Finalists are competing across 5 categories: Revive Our Oceans, Fix Our Climate, Build a Waste-Free World, Protect and Restore Nature, and Clean Our Air. The cohort includes Satellites on Fire, an Argentinian AI-powered wildfire detection and alert platform operating across 21 countries; Mahindra Last Mile Mobility, which the Prize says now sells more electric three-wheelers than any other company in India; Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, which is working to reconnect a mountain landscape across Canada and the United States; and the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance, or ZEMBA, which brings cargo owners together to make commitments to zero-emission shipping. Other Finalists include Ørsted, AirQo, Pula and the Indigenous Desert Alliance.The 2026 selection process also introduced the science of positive tipping points across all 5 Earthshot selection criteria. The Prize says it worked with the University of Exeter and drew on the research of Professor Tim Lenton to develop a framework covering 51 solution areas across nature, air, oceans, waste and climate. It defines a positive tipping point as a point at which beneficial change becomes self-reinforcing, allowing progress to accelerate with less external support. The scientific concept is discussed in a review article published in Global Sustainability titled Operationalising positive tipping points towards global sustainability. Published online on 10 January 2022, the paper by Tim Lenton and colleagues examines how relatively small interventions can trigger self-reinforcing feedbacks that accelerate change toward sustainability. The authors discuss positive tipping points across social, technological and ecological systems and outline ways such points might be identified and deliberately encouraged.
Earthshot Prize Awards 2026 in Mumbai: how the impact figures compare with the 30×30 target
The 2026 winners will be announced at the Earthshot Prize Awards Night in Mumbai on 17 November. The event is sponsored by the Serum Institute of India and will be hosted by Indian filmmaker and broadcaster Karan Johar. Each of the 5 Winners will receive £1 million to scale their work, while all 15 Finalists will receive mentorship, resources and technical support through the Prize’s network. The Earthshot figures provide one measure of the environmental activity attributed by the Prize to its Finalist community, but they cannot be directly converted into progress toward the global 30×30 conservation target. Under Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries committed to effectively conserving at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas and 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030.The latest Protected Planet statistics, updated in October 2026, show that protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures cover 18.69% of terrestrial and inland waters and 10.04% of marine areas. That leaves roughly 11.3 percentage points of terrestrial and inland-water coverage and 20 percentage points of marine coverage to reach 30%. Those remaining figures are simple calculations from the current coverage statistics, rather than figures published by Protected Planet. The situation at sea has changed significantly in 2026. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said in April 2026 that 10.01% of the world’s ocean was within protected and conserved areas, calling the figure an important global milestone and noting that the former Aichi target of 10% by 2020 had been reached six years late. IUCN also stressed that coverage alone is not enough: protected and conserved areas need effective management and equitable governance to deliver conservation outcomes.That distinction is important when interpreting the Earthshot Prize’s 58 million and 85 million hectare figures. The Prize is reporting areas affected by the work of its Finalists, including areas protected, restored or improved. Protected Planet, by contrast, tracks formally documented protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. The Earthshot Prize does not state how much of its reported land or ocean area overlaps with those internationally documented areas.