The Earthshot Prize announces Friendship NGO as a 2025 finalist
Friendship, an NGO based in Bangladesh, have been revealed on Sunday as a 2025 Finalist for the world’s most prestigious environmental award, The Earthshot Prize. Friendship joins a historic coalition of leaders recognised for driving climate action and inspiring everyone to build a better future for people and planet.
Founded by Prince William in 2020, The Earthshot Prize recognises solutions from different geographies, sectors, and stages in their life cycle, and is dedicated to solving our planet’s greatest challenges. The Prize in 2025 marks the halfway point in the Earthshot decade, as the mission gathers pace in this next critical juncture.
Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on Earth, facing recurring climate-induced disasters that threaten millions of people and fragile ecosystems. Between 2014 and 2023, disasters displaced people within Bangladesh 14.7 million times. In response, Friendship takes a holistic approach - delivering healthcare, education, climate-resilient infrastructure; enabling community financial independence, providing access to legal and government services; rebuilding mangrove ecosystems, and restoring coastal communities - to support some of the most isolated and disaster-prone communities.
Founded by Runa Khan in 2002, Friendship goes beyond aid to equip people to withstand the next crisis, transforming fragile communities into models of resilience.
From building raised plinth settlements and schools that can be dismantled and reassembled to withstand rising waters, Friendship has also planted over 62 kilometres of mangroves through the reafforestation of 650,000 trees across more than 200 hectares near the Sundarbans in Bangladesh’s southern coastal area. These mangroves shield villages from the devastating impacts of deadly cyclones - protecting more than 125,000 people to date – while also supporting livelihoods and acting as a vital carbon sink, absorbing and storing carbon dioxide. This contributes to a sustainable future based on blue carbon ecosystems and a thriving blue economy.
From its beginnings as a single floating hospital, Friendship has grown into a dedicated social purpose organisation, giving direct services to more than 7.5 million people annually. It has delivered over 24 million healthcare services and 8.3 million days’ worth of emergency food support, and giving over 80,000 people daily access to safe drinking water in coastal areas.
By 2030, Friendship aims not only to reduce the climate vulnerability of the population, but to ensure lasting improvements in community resilience, dignity, socioeconomic opportunities, and quality of life, driven by systems that are locally owned, ecologically sustainable, replicable, and scalable across similar fragile geographies.
It is this leadership, progress and future potential that impressed The Earthshot Prize during the selection process in the search for outstanding leadership for the 2025 Prize.
As in previous years, the five winners of this year’s Prize will be selected by Prince William and fellow members of the prestigious Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse group of individuals dedicated to protecting the climate and our natural environment
Prince William, Founder and President of The Earthshot Prize said: “As we reach the halfway point of the Earthshot decade, I am truly inspired by this year’s Finalists, which embody the urgent optimism sitting right at the heart of our mission. In just five years, The Earthshot Prize has shown that the answers to our planet’s greatest challenges not only already exist, but that they are firmly within our grasp.”
Runa Khan, Founder of Friendship said: “Being recognised as an Earthshot Prize Finalist is an honour that highlights the resilience and innovation of communities in Bangladesh living on the frontline of climate change. From our first floating hospital to restoring mangroves and building flood-resilient villages, we have proven that community-led, nature-based solutions can transform lives. This recognition amplifies the voices of those most affected and shows that locally driven adaptation is both possible and essential.”
The new Finalists join a community of 60 Finalists who are making significant progress in protecting and restoring our natural world. This includes progress by:
• d.light (Clean our Air 2024 Finalist), which has transformed 200 million lives in Africa with their solar-powered products.
• Notpla (Waste Free World 2022 Finalist), which has replaced 21.5 million single use plastic items with sustainable seaweed packaging, and 11.6 million in 2024.
• Pristine Seas (Revive our Oceans 2021 Finalist), which has established 30 of the largest marine protected areas in the world, covering a total area of 6.9 million square kilometers, more than twice the size of India, and helped to create David Attenborough's groundbreaking Ocean Film.
• Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative (Protect and Restore Nature 2024 Winner) which has helped bring the Saiga Antelope back from the brink of extinction, growing the population from around 40,000 to over 4 million in 20 years. They’ve also reintroduced Przewalski’s horses to Kazakhstan’s wild after more than 200 years.
• Boomitra (Fix Our Climate 2023 Winner), which has worked with over 10,000 farmers in Africa, India, Americas and Mongolia to adopt regenerative agricultural processes and remove nearly a million cars’ worth of CO2 from the atmosphere.
This year’s cohort were selected from nearly 2,500 nominees submitted by the Prize’s network of 575 nominators from 72 countries. The 15 Finalists were chosen based on assessments done by The Earthshot Prize’s selection partners and Expert Advisory Panel, a global group of more than 100 subject-matter experts with deep backgrounds in conservation, science, technology, business, finance, academia and policy.
As in previous years, the five winners of this year’s Prize will be selected by Prince William and fellow members of the prestigious Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse group of individuals dedicated to protecting the climate and our natural environment. The Earthshot Prize Council is chaired by The Earthshot Prize Board of Trustees Chair, Dame Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris Climate Accord.
Members of The Earthshot Prize Council are Prince William, Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Cate Blanchett, Indra Nooyi, José Andrés, Wanjira Mathai, Nemonte Nenquimo, Luisa Neubauer, Naoko Yamazaki, Ernest Gibson, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.