Winner · Environmental Science Subject Award 2026
David Hunter
The finalists
Ten universities. Ten projects. Ten academics.
David Hunter
Pollution and health: a progress update
Drawing on the Global Burden of Diseases study for 2019, this work updates the earlier Lancet Commission estimate that pollution caused 9 million premature deaths a year, and finds the toll broadly unchanged at roughly one death in six worldwide. Deaths linked to household air and water pollution have fallen, but ambient air pollution and toxic chemicals such as lead have taken their place.
Wim de Vries
From planetary to regional boundaries for agricultural nitrogen pollution
Wim de Vries, personal professor in integrated nitrogen impact analysis at Wageningen University & Research, co-authored the Nature study translating the planetary boundary for agricultural nitrogen pollution into spatially explicit regional limits, work with Utrecht University and PBL that shows where nitrogen inputs can safely grow and where they must fall.
Luke Kemp
Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios
Bad-to-worst-case climate futures remain poorly understood, a gap the study argues is itself dangerous. It sets out current knowledge on the likelihood of extreme warming, explains why catastrophic outcomes deserve attention for resilience and emergency planning, and proposes a research agenda organised around four questions about how severe climate change could become.
Etienne Fluet‐Chouinard
Extensive global wetland loss over the past three centuries
How much of the world's wetland has disappeared, and over what timescale? Examining change across the past three centuries, the work assembles a long historical account of global wetland loss, extending the record well beyond the recent decades that most assessments are able to cover.
Mark Maslin
Early warning signals of the termination of the African Humid Period(s)
Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at UCL, co-authored a Nature Communications study with colleagues across Europe, Africa and the United States identifying early warning signals for the termination of the African Humid Periods, sharpening understanding of abrupt climate transitions and their consequences for past and future societies.
Richard Betts
Global and Regional Trends and Drivers of Fire Under Climate Change
Recent wildfire outbreaks around the world have prompted concern that climate change is increasing fire incidence, threatening human livelihoods and biodiversity. Reviewing how climate change affects fire weather and taking stock of regional trends in burned area over recent decades, the work examines how fire activity relates to its bioclimatic and human drivers, from vegetation and lightning to ignition, suppression and land use.
Detlef van Vuuren
Exploring pathways for world development within planetary boundaries
Detlef van Vuuren, Professor of Integrated Assessment of Global Environmental Change at Utrecht University and senior researcher at PBL, led the Nature study exploring pathways for world development within planetary boundaries, integrated scenario modelling with Stockholm and Dutch partners showing how societies can meet human development goals while restoring Earth system stability.
Katherine Richardson
Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries
Updating the planetary boundaries framework, the study concludes that six of the nine boundaries have now been crossed, placing Earth outside what the authors describe as a safe operating space for humanity. It also proposes human appropriation of net primary production as a way to measure the functional integrity of the biosphere, a measure that is itself already transgressed.
Kristoffer Hylander
Forest microclimates and climate change: Importance, drivers and future research agenda
Beneath a forest canopy, conditions contrast strongly with the climate outside, yet these microclimates are rarely integrated into ecological research. The work reviews how forest features, local water balance, topography and landscape composition shape microclimates, and why understanding them matters for predicting how forest biodiversity and ecosystem functions will respond to global change.
Markku Kulmala
Climate Change and Weather Extremes in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East is a recognised climate change hotspot, and this assessment draws together recent observations, projections and literature on what is happening there and why. It reports that the region has warmed significantly faster than other inhabited parts of the world, that its greenhouse gas emissions now surpass those of the European Union, and that its water cycle is shifting.
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Partners verify their data and feature their academics. Finalists were identified from open data; winners were decided by our editorial team and announced on 15 September 2026.
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Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential
Emerging technologies for PFOS/PFOA degradation and removal: A review
High and rising economic costs of biological invasions worldwide
The 2021 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future
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