One of the world’s biggest environmental awards, the Earthshot Prize, has announced its 2025 winners, and Brazilian organisation re.green has taken home a top prize for its ambitious work restoring some of South America’s most threatened forests.
The announcement came just days before Brazil hosted COP30, a major global climate conference. So what does this all mean, and why is re.green’s win so important?
What Is the Earthshot Prize?
Prince William established the Earthshot Prize to support innovative ideas that help restore the planet. Each year, five winners receive funding and expert support to grow their projects.
The five categories are:
- Protect & Restore Nature
- Clean Our Air
- Revive Our Oceans
- Build a Waste-Free World
- Fix Our Climate
The 2025 ceremony took place in Rio de Janeiro, drawing global attention to Brazil’s crucial role in tackling climate change and protecting its natural habitats.
Who Were the 2025 Earthshot Winners?
This year’s five winners were:
- re.green (Brazil) – for large-scale reforestation using advanced technology
- NINOS DE MONTE (Peru) – protecting Amazonian wildlife with community-led conservation
- WOTA (Japan) – creating water-recycling systems to reduce waste
- TBM (Japan) – producing eco-friendly materials to replace single-use plastics
- Holy Grail (USA) – using technology to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere
Each project offers a different solution to environmental problems, showing how many angles there are to fixing our planet.
What Is COP, and Why Is COP30 Important?
COP stands for Conference of the Parties. It’s a huge international meeting held every year by the United Nations, where almost every country in the world gathers to discuss climate change.
At COP, governments:
- review the latest climate science
- agree on goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions
- decide how to protect forests, oceans and wildlife
- discuss ways to support countries affected by climate impacts
COP30, hosted in Brazil, is especially significant because it focuses heavily on forests, notably the Amazon, which is one of Earth’s most important carbon stores.
This makes re.green’s win incredibly timely.
What Did re.green Win For?
re.green is restoring damaged forests across Brazil through reforestation, planting trees in areas that were once forest but have been cleared. This differs from afforestation, which involves planting trees in areas where there were no forests previously.
The company uses modern technology to do this on a massive scale, including:
- Satellites and drones to map damaged land
- Artificial intelligence (AI) to choose the best tree species for each location
- Local nurseries that grow millions of native seedlings
- Partnerships with communities and landowners to keep restoration sustainable
Their long-term plan is to restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest — helping nature recover while supporting local jobs.
How Does This Link to COP30?
Forests are a major focus of COP30 because they:
- absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide, helping slow climate change
- protect biodiversity by providing habitats
- support rainfall patterns and regulate water cycles
By restoring forests, re.green is helping Brazil move closer to its climate promises. Their work shows other countries that reforestation can be scientific, large-scale and community-focused.
Why Does Forest Restoration Matter?
Healthy forests are vital for the planet. They:
- store carbon, helping reduce global warming
- provide homes for rare animals and plants
- protect soil from erosion and help keep rivers clean
- support local communities with jobs and resources
When forests are cleared, these benefits are lost. re.green’s work aims to bring them back, one area at a time.
A Positive Step Forward
The Earthshot Prize celebrates hope and solutions. re.green’s win shows that repairing damaged forests is possible, even on a very large scale. Combined with the discussions happening at COP30, it’s a reminder that countries, communities and innovators around the world are working hard to create a more sustainable future.
Interested in finding out more about re.green? Check out their website.
