Is the Nobel Prize Trending Green?

Counting the Awardees for Environmental Achievement

A Nobel Prize medal. Wikimedia

While the prestigious Nobel Prize system does not include a formal “environment” award, numerous laureates in the Peace, Chemistry, Physics, and Economic Sciences categories have been honored for research and action that deepen humanity’s understanding of the planet and support its protection. This data brief highlights key laureates and their achievements—and how awards for environmental contributions have accumulated over time.

• Between 1901 to 2025, 633 prizes have been awarded to 1,026 people and organizations across six categories (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences).

• A retrospective by the Nobel Foundation identifies 11 Nobel Prizes directly tied to understanding and protecting Earth’s systems—from climate modeling and ozone chemistry to sustainable economics. 

• The Nobel Foundation’s “Spotlight on Sustainability” notes that the share of environment-related Nobel work is rising, particularly in “green chemistry” and climate-related physics. Notable examples follow:

  • Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina, and F. Sherwood Rowland (Chemistry, 1995): Awarded for discovering how man-made compounds destroy the ozone layer—a landmark moment that shaped the Montreal Protocol.

  • Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement (Peace, 2004): Honored “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace” by linking environmental restoration with women’s empowerment.

  • William Nordhaus (Economic Sciences, 2018): Recognized “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis,” making him the first economist to model global warming’s long-term cost.

  • Syukuro Manabe of Princeton University and Klaus Hasselmann of Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (Physics, 2021): Jointly honored “for the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.” Their work built the foundation of modern climate forecasting.

  • David W. C. MacMillan of Princeton University (Chemistry, 2021): Recognized for pioneering asymmetric organocatalysis, a breakthrough that revolutionized green chemistry by reducing reliance on toxic and rare metals.

  • Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi (Chemistry, 2025): Awarded “for the development of metal-organic frameworks,” materials that can capture carbon dioxide and extract water from air—technologies crucial for climate mitigation.