Climate Activists Granted the Right Livelihood Award
Indigenous lawyer Julian Aguon from the Pacific island of Guam and the student organisation Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) have been awarded the 2025 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Text: Marika Griehsel
Motivering lyder:
”För att ha tagit uppmaningen om klimaträttvisa till den Internationella domstolen ICJ och därmed gjort överlevnad till en fråga om rättigheter samt klimatåtgärder till ett juridiskt ansvar.”
Deep Sea Reporter har nyligen besökt Marshallöarna i Stilla havet där befolkningen lever i frontlinjen av klimatkrisen.
Elson Kelen, a local leader in the Marshall Islands who lives in the capital Majuro, describes how the sea that provides food and cultural identity now also enables a very uncertain future. ‘We are facing an unknown future.’
“The Ssea that we depend on so much is the same sea that is creeping closer and closer to our living rooms. People in rich and powerful nations will probably see climate change, but in this country, we are living it.”
Elson Kelen, local leader in the Marshall Islands. Photo: Simon Stanford
It is estimated that at least 300 million people will be threatened by the consequences of rising sea levels by 2050–2100. These are mainly people living in low-lying areas who are at risk of flooding, loss of land, saltwater intrusion and damage to infrastructure and ecosystems.
Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) is a student organisation that took the climate crisis to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on behalf of the planet and humanity.
The organisation was founded in 2019 by 27 law students who designed the campaign in a classroom at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu.
For them, climate change was not an abstract concept: in the Pacific, cyclones devastate economies, rising seas drive families from their homes and salt water destroys crops.
After six years of campaigning, the PISFCC’s work, as part of a global movement centred on human rights, culminated in a historic victory at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2025.
The court issued an advisory opinion confirming that states have binding legal obligations to prevent climate damage, protect human rights, provide compensation, and ensure the ability of present and future generations to live.
The ruling was a breakthrough in international law and opened a new path for climate justice globally.
The core of the students’ strategy was to collect testimonies from around the Pacific Islands, one of the regions least responsible for climate change but already paying the highest price.
By bringing these testimonies of loss, resilience and demands for justice into international law, PISFCC ensured that real stories from the front line shaped the ICJ’s decision.
PISFCC shares the 2025 Right Livelihood Award with Chamorro lawyer and author Julian Aguon, whose legal team drove the case forward.
