The Independent Climate 100 List 2024

The climate crisis is the defining issue of our age. By now, dealing with it should be at the top of every country’s priority list. In this time of great unrest around the world, it may feel counterintuitive for it to take precedence, but, to put it bluntly, if we don’t act now nothing else will exist.

As Greta Thunberg so accurately and succinctly puts it, it’s an existential emergency. Last year was the hottest on record, with temperatures soaring to 34.8C in the UK. Wildfires have been sweeping through Europe, hurricanes are becoming more frequent out of season, and crops are being ravaged by both floods and droughts, pushing ecosystems to the brink.

Aside from the terrifying impacts we can see and feel, there are those not visible but very much present, including the disparity between rich and poor nations. The latter bear a disproportionately large part of the physical and financial burden of the climate crisis, but have contributed the least to it. Island nations, smaller countries and coastal areas are at risk of being totally submerged. Entire cultures could be lost along with land, and whole populations are at risk of displacement. We are nearing tipping points at which the drastic effects of the climate crisis caused by humans will become irreversible.

However, there is hope, in the form of innovators around the globe, pushing to have their voices heard and protecting the environment for the next generation, while paving the way for a better, cleaner and greener future.

That’s why The Independent is launching its inaugural Climate 100 List, which includes changemaking activists, scientists, academics, philanthropists, political leaders, business and tech leaders, and fashion entrepreneurs. These people have innovated with solutions such as hydrogen storage, sponsoring oceans, discovering plastic-eating bacteria, and revolutionising chemical-free textile dyeing, to name a few examples.

The Climate 100 List isn’t in order of importance, nor does it compare or rank one changemaker against another. Instead, it’s a celebration of the people and companies dedicated to finding positive climate solutions. Some have made a splash recently with a notable contribution to the fight, while others, such as King Charles and Jane Goodall, are celebrated for their longevity. We also asked you, our readers, to nominate five unsung climate heroes, and they are included on the list too.

Our inaugural list is published to coincide with Climate Week NYC – one of the climate world’s biggest events – where The Independent will also be holding its own inaugural Climate 100 event.

So, meet the exceptional people solving the planet’s greatest challenges.

Activists

1. Ayisha Siddiqa

At just 25 years old, Ayisha Siddiqa has achieved a lot as a human rights defender and climate activist. Born in Pakistan, she moved to Brooklyn as a child. At just 14, she saw the effects of climate change not only on the environment, but also on humans, after family members in Pakistan became ill from polluted river water. The links she saw between human rights and the climate crisis led her to get involved in climate activism, and she went on to found her university’s branch of Extinction Rebellion in 2019 and lead a strike involving 300,000 people.

In 2020 she co-founded Polluters Out, a global youth movement, and helped create an activist training course, the Fossil Free University. She contributed to The Climate Book, edited by Greta Thunberg, and continues to encourage young people to get involved in activism.

Siddiqa believes solutions to the crisis are too often developed from a global-North perspective, which doesn’t work for many of the countries worst affected. She campaigns for Indigenous people’s rights, as well as for women, who she recognises are disproportionately affected by floods and other devastation caused by the climate crisis, as water collecting and family care duties often fall to them.

2. Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben’s 1989 book,The End of Nature, is widely recognized as the first for a general audience about climate change. It remains in publication and has been translated into 24 languages.

The author, environmentalist and activist was awarded the Gandhi Peace Award in 2013 and has been a key climate protest organiser for decades.

He co-founded the global grassroots organisation 350.org in 2008, which aims to end our reliance on fossil fuels. The name is an ode to climate scientist James Hansen, who warned that any atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide above 350 parts per million (ppm) was unsafe. Currently, the planet’s concentration is over 420ppm.

In 2021, he founded Third Act, an activist group for older environmentalists, with the support of big names including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Jane Fonda.

In this US presidential election season, he continues to be a force in bringing out the climate vote and is crisscrossing the country to drive support for Democrat candidate, Kamala Harris, over climate science denier, Donald Trump.

3. Greta Thunberg

Few people can claim to have been as engaged in the climate crisis from such a young age as Greta Thunberg. From the age of eight, Thunberg became vegan and wouldn’t travel by airplane in order to reduce her carbon footprint. Since then, she has dedicated her life to the cause, consistently calling out world leaders in her sharp speeches for their inaction on climate change.

In 2018, at the age of 15, Thunberg inspired a global movement after holding her first school climate strike outside the Swedish parliament, which called for the end of reliance on fossil fuels. She garnered huge media attention, and thousands of students around the world joined her Fridays For Future strikes. She achieved what other activists had struggled to do by bringing the severity and urgency of the climate crisis into homes across the world, an impact that quickly became known as the “Greta effect”. She has also inspired others with Asperger’s (which she calls her superpower) to feel included and take a stand.

Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year between 2019 and 2023. In 2019, she became the youngest person to be named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. In 2022, she published The Climate Book, a “book of the year” for many top publications.

Since finishing her schooling last summer, Thunberg has ramped up her activism. Earlier this year, aged 21, she was acquitted of charges of blocking an oil conference. After the verdict, she said: “We must remember who the real enemy is”.

4. Julia Olson

Julia Olson is the founder and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, a not-for-profit law firm that earlier this year won a landmark case against the state of Montana over the constitutional right to a healthy environment. Representing 16 young people, the trust sued the government for prioritising fossil fuels over ensuring a safe climate for future generations.

Formerly an attorney, Olson founded the trust in 2010 while pregnant with her second child and after watching Al Gore’s climate documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, during which it dawned on her that future generations could be left with a near-devastated world without drastic action.

Our Children’s Trust empowers young people to hold governments accountable for their climate inaction.

5. KlimaSeniorinnen

Known collectively as KlimaSeniorinnen, this group of Swiss women in their 60s and beyond, are proving that age is no barrier when it comes to environmental action. Galvanised by the urgency of climate change, the women collectively won a historic case against their government in April after successfully arguing its inaction had put them at particular risk of dying during heatwaves because of their age and gender.

The group is made up of more than 2,000 women, and the court decided that the Swiss government had violated their human rights by not doing enough for them. The case has resonated across Europe as the weather becomes more extreme, and will likely encourage other groups to bring forward similar cases.

6. Neeshad Shafi

As co-founder of the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar (AYCM), Neeshad Shafi has created a first-of-its-kind study on public perceptions of climate change in Qatar.

Qatar regularly experiences some of the world’s highest temperatures, with Shafi noting that “global warming” is over and the period of “global boiling” has begun.

Through his work, Shafi attempts to change the minds of the proportion of people in Qatar who don’t believe in the climate crisis, by showing them how effects will impact them. One of the biggest battles Shafi has faced is some people’s belief that they can’t do anything to help change the situation, and countering that view is a major focus for him.

7. Nemonte Nenquimo

As the first woman president of the Waorani people of Pastaza and co-founder of the Indigenous-led, non-profit organisation Ceibo Alliance, Nemonte Nenquimo has become a powerful voice in the fight against the climate crisis in Ecuador and around the world. Ceibo is the first alliance of its kind between four ancestral nations within Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

Since 2013, she has been defending Indigenous rights and lands against extractive industries in the Amazon. She won a case against the Ecuadorian government in 2019, protecting half a million acres of Waorani ancestral land in the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling. It set a landmark legal precedent to protect a further seven million acres from planned oil auctions.

Nemonte co-wrote her first book with her husband Mitch Anderson. Published in June, We Will Not Be Saved, is a memoir of hope and resistance about the Amazon rainforest.

For her work, she has become the first Indigenous woman to be included on theTime 100 list, and she was one of six environmental leaders to be awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize. In 2020, the United Nations Environment Programme awarded her its Champions of the Earth award in the category Inspiration and Action.

8. Nurul Sarifah and Dayeon Lee

Korean pop music (K-pop) and climate activism may not seem the most natural of pairings. Yet after meeting online through a young environmental leaders group and realising they shared a love for K-pop, Nurul Sarifah and Dayeon Lee brought their two passions together to create Kpop4Planet in 2021. With their unique bridge between the two worlds, the pair can tap into the likes of the 75 million followers of K-pop’s biggest band, BTS, while the hashtag “Kpop” has more than 134 million tags on Instagram.

Within the community, the duo can speak to K-pop fans globally, informing and educating millions of young people around the world about the climate crisis while also mobilising them to take action. They use slogans such as “There’s no K-pop on a dead planet” to drive the severity of the issue home to this niche, but increasingly large, group of people.

9. Raoni Metuktire

Raoni Metuktire, the chief of Brazil’s Kayapo tribe, is now 92 years old, and has spent decades fighting for the Amazon. In the late 1980s, he campaigned with pop star Sting and his wife Trudie Styler to prevent hydroelectric dams being built on the Xingu River, a major tributary of the Amazon.

Though the campaign was a huge success at the time, and Metuktire has been referred to as the most effective protector of the Amazon, the threat has since resurfaced, on an increased scale. Now, an estimated 60 hydroelectric dams are planned for construction along the Amazon, including at least six on the Xingu.

Even a decade ago, as reported by The Independent, Metuktire said the developed world was intent on “destroying everything” and urged its citizens to fundamentally change the way they think. Growing up following a nomadic lifestyle in the Amazon, he did not encounter the outside world until he was 22.

10. Rise St. James

This Louisiana-based climate justice group is led by Sharon Lavinge, and they’re fighting against what has come to be known as “Cancer Alley”, an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River home to more than 200 petrochemical plants and refineries, which cause extreme pollution. Black communities bear the brunt of the ill-effects from these plants and refineries, a striking example of environmental racism.

In 2022, the group campaigned to prevent construction of a plastics manufacturing complex. Costing $9.4bn (£7.4bn) and made up of 10 plants covering 2,400 acres, it would have been the US’s largest petrochemical complex. The group argued there were already too many chemical plants in the area, and they won.

In January of this year, however, the decision was overturned after a Louisiana court upheld the air permits for the petrochemical complex, meaning construction can go ahead. Despite this setback, Rise St. James have vowed to continue their fight.

11. Roger Hallam and Dr Gail Bradbrook

The co-founders of campaign group Extinction Rebellion (XR), Roger Hallam and Dr Gail Bradbrook started their movement in 2018. There are now more than 1,000 XR groups globally, and it has reshaped environmental activism.

Hallam is a farmer-turned-activist while Bradbrook is a psychoanalyst. They organise peaceful but often disruptive protests demanding urgent, meaningful action from governments. They achieved this in 2019 when their efforts led to UK parliament finally declaring a climate emergency. But in recent years, public support for XR has wavered when more extreme tactics are deployed.

Hallam, who is also a founder of the activist groups Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain, was imprisoned for five years in July after being found guilty of disruption on the M25 as part of a protest during which five members of the group climbed onto gantries over the motorway. They are thought to be the longest sentences ever given for peaceful protest, yet the movement remains undeterred.

In a piece Bradbrook recently wrote for The Independent’s Climate 100 series, she said: “Simple, human-made rules – such as corporate laws that prioritise shareholders’ profits over life and wellbeing… have built an economy that is dominated by psychopathic actors (banks, oil companies, billionaires, corporations peddling false solutions) that are prepared to see the world burn and unravel just so their obscene profits can keep rolling in.”

12. Wawa Gatheru

Kenyan-American climate activist Wawa Gatheru is the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, which supports women of colour and gender expansive people. Its aim is to create a representative and inclusive climate movement, and is now one of the biggest Black youth-led climate organisations in the US, making her a powerful voice for underrepresented communities.

She was aware of the climate crisis while growing up, but came to the realisation that those most affected by it – people of colour – were generally not the same people making the decisions.

She saw that the narrative for people of colour was more likely to be “victim” than “problem solver”, and also recognised that women had even less of a voice. Black Girl Environmentalist’s aim is to champion Black women as the leaders they already are.

13. John Vaillant

Award-winning author and journalist John Vaillant isn’t your typical environmentalist. Instead of making impassioned speeches to get his point across, he harnesses his voice through his fiction and non-fiction writing, using storytelling as a powerful tool.

His bestselling books include The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, and his work highlights often overlooked consequences of human actions on the environment.

His most recent book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, published last year, retells the story of Canada’s 2016 wildfire – nicknamed “the Beast” – which swept through Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada’s oil industry. The book is a terrifying wake-up call on just how flammable the world is, and earned him a place as a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Arts & Fashion

14. Gisele Bündchen

The hugely successful model became an environmentalist after animal rights activists jumped onto a catwalk to protest against her collaboration with a fur brand in 2002. She used her leverage as the world’s highest-paid model (at the time) and refused to work with fur, setting an example for others.

Bündchen is a​​ UN Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador and uses the role to draw attention to the devastation of the Amazon rainforest in her native Brazil. She set up her Água Limpa project, which ensures Brazilian communities have access to clean water and helps restore the rainforest.

She uses her global audience (she has 22.9 million followers on Instagram alone) to encourage people to protect the Earth, calling it our “fundamental life support system”, which she sees as “our responsibility” to protect for generations to come.

When she turned 40 in July 2020, she marked the occasion by planting 40,000 trees. That number grew to 250,000 trees after her fans got involved.

15. Arizona Muse

British-American model Arizona Muse is the founder of the charity Dirt, a non-profit organisation which aims to change the fashion industry by supporting regenerative methods.

After witnessing the fashion industry’s impacts, she speaks out about the hidden costs of fashion on the environment and communities, including ethical and sustainability-related problems associated with exploitation.

She has spent the past decade highlighting the importance of regenerative organic agriculture, especially for growing the raw materials needed to make our clothes.

16. Francis Kéré

Originally from Burkina Faso, Francis Kéré is a globally renowned architect focused on sustainability. It’s through his work in his resource-scarce home country that he has seen first hand the effects of the climate crisis.

Kéré combines modern architectural principles with traditional African techniques, resulting in work that is a powerful testament to the potential of architecture to drive positive change.

He was the first child in his village of Gando to go to school, which meant going to live with his uncle in the city. After completing his further education in Berlin, he built a school in his home village. In contrast to other school buildings in the area, Kéré’s school was made from mud bricks rather than concrete, better suiting the climate and allowing for ventilation.

He has launched the Rural Climate Adaptation Initiative, training builders across Africa in sustainable construction. This programme empowers communities to create climate-resilient infrastructure using local resources. Kéré was awarded the 2023 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, highlighting his impact on sustainable design in the Global South.

17. Jimena Suárez Ibarrola

A former lawyer from Mexico City, Jimena Suárez Ibarrola’s work focused on sustainable development and environmental justice until founding SENTIENT, her vegan leather handbag company, in 2020. Its name is a poignant nod to her stance of causing no harm to animals.

What sets her brand apart is that the vegan leather is not made from polyurethane, a plastic that is harmful to the environment. Instead she uses mirum, a high-quality, plant-based material that biodegrades and is free from plastic. Made from cork, charcoal, coconut husk, soybean oil and natural rubber, it emits 10 times less carbon than traditional chrome tanned leather.

Suárez Ibarrola also educates people against the myth that leather is a by-product of the meat industry - explaining that, in fact, animals are slaughtered solely for their skin for the fashion industry.

18. Kongjian Yu

Known for his groundbreaking work in ecological urbanism, Kongjian Yu is the founder of Turenscape, one of China’s leading visionary architecture and landscape companies, where his work has redefined the relationship between cities and nature.

Yu is most famous for his “sponge city” concept, which won him the 2023 Oberlander Prize and is cleverly designed to prevent flooding in cities. It is an example of taking inspiration from natural landscapes to help manage water in urban settings and prevent flooding and drought, linked to the climate crisis.

His concept works by integrating green spaces, such as wetlands, parks and permeable surfaces, into his designs to help cities absorb, store, and purify rainwater and reduce flooding, thus making them more resilient and improving residents’ quality of life.

19. Livia Giuggioli Firth

Livia Giuggioli Firth raises awareness on sustainability in the fashion industry. She is the founder of the Green Carpet Challenge, which began in 2010 and has brought sustainability to the forefront by encouraging celebrities and designers to choose eco-friendly materials and follow ethical practices on the red carpet, spotlighting the environmental costs of fast fashion.

Her 2015 documentary, The True Cost, highlights the hidden environmental and ethical toll of fast fashion, largely on women in the Global South. Through her activism, she has influenced major fashion brands to adopt more sustainable practices and sparked a movement towards greater transparency and accountability in the industry.

In August, she closed her longstanding consultancy business, Eco-Age, after 17 years. In an emotional Instagram reel, she said the business had been unable to financially recover after being “targeted by criminals”.

20. Natsai Audrey Chieza

Fashion has a pollution problem, but the Zimbabwe-born Natsai Audrey Chieza found an unlikely solution within biology.

Most of the textile industry’s ecological damage happens near the end of the process at the dyeing stage, as it requires a huge amount of water and many chemicals used are petroleum-based. Chieza came across a solution in the pigment found in mould, which she harnessed to create a toxin-free dye, creating a groundbreaking alternative technique.

It’s just one achievement out of her design, research and development studio Faber Futures. Set up in 2018, it designs at the intersection of nature, tech, science and sustainability, using biology to address problems caused by the climate crisis. Her work not only reduces the environmental impact of textile production but also promotes a broader dialogue about the role of biology in sustainable design.

21. Olafur Eliasson

Icelandic-Danish visual artist Olafur Eliasson creates large-scale, innovative and immersive installations that pose questions about the climate crisis. They’re as much a form of activism as art, and a powerful presence at the intersection of creativity and activism.

His environmentally-conscious work explores the relationship between art, nature and sustainability, and he uses light, water and natural elements to create experiences that highlight environmental issues such as melting ice caps and drought in a dramatic way, making them conversation-starters.

His notable projects include Riverbed, which transformed Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art into a biodiverse riverbed in 2014; the Weather Project at the Tate Modern in 2003, which looked like a giant sun taking up the entire turbine hall at the gallery; and Ice Watch, which involved placing huge chunks of melting ice in the shape of the numbers on a clock in Copenhagen’s City Hall Square.

His latest exhibition, which opened in Doha last October, is entitled The Curious Desert. It has 12 sites and uses the landscape to highlight the fragility of the natural environment.

22. Sabrina Dhowre Elba

Canadian model and actress Sabrina Dhowre Elba is a UN Goodwill Ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which supports millions of smallholder farmers on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Women and girls form the majority of this informal agriculture market, but have far less access to resources.

Speaking to The Independent in 2022, Elba said: “Women and girls get the short end of the straw. They are always affected in a way that is disproportionate to men, and cultural issues in rural areas can make things even more difficult.”

In Africa and Asia, smallholder farmers produce 80 per cent of food consumed, yet only receive only 1.7 per cent of climate finance – at a time when producers are buckling under extreme impacts. The climate crisis has pushed the Horn of Africa into its most severe drought in 40 years.

At the UN climate summit, Cop27, Elba joined calls for rich countries to make good on their promise of $100bn a year in climate finance for developing nations, and for half of that amount to be channelled into adaptation including for agriculture.

23. Stella McCartney

A name that’s been associated with sustainability long before it became a buzzword, Stella McCartney has used her status and following to speak out on environmental issues.

Inspired by her mother Linda, a noted vegetarian and animal rights activist, McCartney has become one of the most influential figures in sustainable fashion, refusing to use any kind of animal products, and encouraging the reuse and recycling of materials, as well as the reduction of waste.

She launched her fashion line in 2001 and has been committed to ethical and environmentally conscious practices since. She has recently gone on to champion regenerative farming practices in her supply chain and has expanded the use of bio-based materials.

Business & Finance

24. Ajaita Shah

Ajaita Shah is the CEO and founder of Frontier Markets, a social commerce platform dedicated to helping rural women in villages across India become entrepreneurs while fighting climate change.

She has been cited by the World Economic Forum for her work, which seeks to connect up to 100 million rural households using smartphone technology by 2030. Shah was also named as one of the Fortune India 40 under 40 entrepreneurs to watch in 2022.

Frontier Markets, founded in 2011, benefits from Shah’s background in microfinance and gender inclusive business models, and provides safe energy sources to millions of women by replacing kerosene-based products. The company educates farmers, shop-owners, nonprofits and even local governments in how to substitute pollutive and toxic energy practices for clean ones.

25. Boris Gamazaychikov

Boris Gamazaychikov is senior manager of emissions reductions at Salesforce, where he is responsible for implementing clean energy strategies around the world to develop and grow the tech company’s massive data centre operations.

As research in AI and products such as ChatGPT grows, tech companies such as Salesforce, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are scouring the earth for new places to build data centres to accommodate soaring energy demand tied to the new technology.

“The short-term climate risk is that AI growth is going to prevent some of that energy transition,” said Gamazaychikov in an interview with Callaway Climate Insights earlier this year. “There’s a potential that AI growth may be the reason that we have to reopen a coal plant, or an oil refinery.”

The California-based executive’s goal is for Salesforce to cut its emissions in half by 2030, while also expanding its AI energy usage. The solution is finding places to tap into clean energy sources to develop the centres. Gamazaychikov also advocated breaking AI computing programs into smaller projects that will use less energy.

Among his accomplishments in the last year were creating and launching the Green Code initiative, including the Sustainability Guide for Salesforce technology.

26. Eva Zabey

Eva Zabey is the CEO of Business for Nature, a Geneva-based group of more than 100 organisations seeking to work with business and policy-makers on behalf of the environment. It ambitiously plans to achieve a nature-positive economy for all by 2030.

Before joining Business for Nature, Zabey was a senior member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. As an ecologist, she has long been associated with work to reverse the loss of important natural systems, as well as biodiversity initiatives.

27. Jonathan Maxwell

The British investment banking entrepreneur Jonathan Maxwell created Sustainable Development Capital LLP almost 17 years ago to seek opportunities in the booming market for energy efficiency. Since then, it has been at the forefront of creating value from wasted heat and gas.

Maxwell notes that up to a third of global emissions are caused by the construction sector, from cement and steel to inefficient lighting and air conditioning systems. From steel mills in the US to olive presses in Spain, the company works with large commercial operations to find ways for them to save energy by reducing waste.

Last year, he published a book called The Edge: How Competition For Resources Is Pushing The World, And Its Climate, To The Brink – And What We Can Do About It. It covers how events of the past decade, such as frequent extreme weather, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s economic evolution, have contributed to a battle for resources that in part has led to political fighting over whether to use more or less oil and gas.

28. Ben Goldsmith

Ben Goldsmith is a financier and environmentalist, inspired by his father, Sir James Goldsmith, who towards the end of his life was one of Europe’s most prominent founders of green causes along with his uncle, Teddy Goldsmith, a founder of the Green Party.

As the founder of the JMG Foundation, which funds campaigning and advocacy work, Goldsmith has supported numerous environmental causes, focusing on biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable agriculture. He has also played a key role in promoting rewilding, which encourages restoration of natural habitats and wildlife.

Following the tragic death of his daughter Iris in 2019, he wrote his first book, God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and A Calling to Nature, which covers how he found solace in nature on his Somerset farm. He and his ex-wife, Kate Rothschild, set up the Iris Project, an environmental charity which provides grants and mentoring to young environmentalists.

29. Lisa Jackson

Some sustainability jobs are more high profile than others. For Lisa Jackson, being named the first Black administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by former president Barack Obama, was high profile enough.

But she then went to Apple where she currently holds the role of vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives. Among tech giants – which have massive emissions because of their data centres – Apple is among the most respected by climate watchers.

Earlier this year, the company said it had cut emissions and those of its vast supply chain by as much as 55 per cent since 2015, as part of its plan to be carbon neutral by 2030. Apple has reportedly leaned on its suppliers to use more clean energy in its businesses as part of its efforts.

A significant part of harmful carbon production comes from the manufacturing process, and Apple said late last year that it has cut the emissions in production of its new iPhones by up to 30 per cent by using different materials.

Jackson has been in environmental protection since the late 1980s. She was named head of environmental protection in New Jersey by former governor Jon Corzine in 2006, and two years later was nominated by Obama to the Environmental Protection Agency, where she served from 2009 to 2013.

30. Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella is chairman and CEO of Microsoft, one of the tech giants most associated with climate and environmental ambition, but also with destructive greenhouse gas emissions tied to its growing AI goals.

Nadella was one of the first tech leaders to establish a target for going carbon negative by 2030 - withdrawing more harmful carbon from the atmosphere than it’s putting in.

In July, Microsoft signed what was billed as the largest carbon removal deal yet, agreeing to purchase eight million tonnes of carbon removal credits from a unit of BTG Pactual, a Latin American investment bank.

But Microsoft’s growing demand for developing data centres to accommodate its AI research, and that of partners such as Open AI, have put Nadella’s plans in reverse. The company’s emissions rose 30 per cent last year because of the new data centres.

For Nadella, who was born and raised in India and has worked at Microsoft since 1992 before becoming CEO in 2014, working to make AI’s extraordinary demands for more electricity compatible with reducing the company’s carbon pollution will become a major part of his legacy.

31. Scott Tew

Scott Tew knows better than anybody the opportunities – and risks – inherent in fighting climate change. Tew is managing director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability at Trane Technologies, one of the world’s largest industrial cooling and heating companies.

In a world in which record temperatures are being set every month, there is arguably no better position to be in than working at an air conditioning company. Tew is one of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) world’s most prominent corporate innovators, drawing large audiences when he discusses how companies need to develop sustainability cultures.

Trane is based in North Carolina but domiciled in Ireland, and its stock is among the best performers on Wall Street of any clean tech stocks of the last few years. With 15 per cent of emissions coming from inefficient heating and cooling systems, and another 10 per cent from food transportation, Tew and Trane are in a strong position to influence how the world reacts to global warming, and how companies can prepare.

32. Stefania Di Bartolomeo

Stefania Di Bartolomeo is the founder of Physis Investments, a Boston-based asset manager with an all-woman executive team dedicated to making investing in the fight against climate change profitable and transparent.

A Harvard graduate who grew up in Italy, she became focused on sustainable finance in her early 20s after taking a call from an investor asking how her money, specifically, was making a difference.

Di Bartolomeo conceived a software portfolio package that would show investors not just how much money they were making or losing on a stock, but also how that company uses money on things like water security, energy efficiency, corporate philanthropy, or to increase the number of women in its senior management ranks.

Physis, a fintech company whose name is Greek for nature or law of nature, is dedicated to advocating the position that there are important metrics to investing in companies beyond just profit and loss.

“If I talk to people about alpha or beta they don’t understand, but if I tell them we’re using their money to empower women to get management jobs in Europe, that’s something they can understand,” Di Bartolomeo once said.

33. Yvon Chouinard

Yvon Chouinard is one of the most influential businessmen in the climate world. A rock climber, environmentalist and philanthropist, he became a billionaire after founding Patagonia, the California-based maker of outdoor recreation clothing in 1973.

In 2022, Chouinard stunned both the environmental and corporate worlds by donating all of Patagonia’s investing stock (while keeping control of its voting stock) to a trust to ensure that future profits are used to address the climate crisis.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Chouinard was a well-known mountain and ice climber in Europe and the US, and started out making steel pitons (spikes) for climbing. In the 1970s, when he learned that the steel pitons were cracking the rock faces in Yosemite National Park, he changed the material to aluminium and in the process invented what is now called “clean climbing”.

34. Randy Durband

Randy Durband is the CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), a non-governmental organisation created by the United Nations almost 20 years ago to help reduce the environmental impact of tourism while boosting travel opportunities as a way to benefit people.

As tourism expands post-Covid and travellers demand more and more immersive experiences, the potential to harm specific environments and cultures grows. Several cities in Europe rebelled against tourists this past summer, including Barcelona, for crowding their streets and polluting.

Durband and GSTC particularly work with hotels to hold them to guidelines for waste management, emissions and environmental practices. A year ago, GSTC partnered with BCD Travel China and Colorful Earth to develop a “Sustainable Business Travel Strategy Guide” targeted at corporate travel clients and sustainability professionals.

35. Lauren Uppink Calderwood

Head of Aviation, Travel and Tourism at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Lauren Uppink Calderwood is a leading voice for innovative technologies that can reduce carbon emissions in the booming travel industry.

She acknowledges the aviation industry’s pollution problem but says ignoring the progress that’s been made to decarbonise only hinders further positive action. “We cannot afford to be paralysed by climate pessimism but must rather accelerate action,” she said in June last year.

Uppink Calderwood led WEF’s 2021 “Clean Skies For Tomorrow” coalition of 60 major companies who pledged to replace 10 per cent of global jet fuel supply with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030. Though the aviation industry still has a long way to go in terms of scaling this up, it’s a positive starting point and Calderwood is looking towards a future of carbon-neutral flying.

Entertainment, Royalty & Sport

36. Alia Bhatt

Bollywood star Alia Bhatt has long been active in raising awareness on environmental issues, which is why she was drawn to work on the Amazon Prime TV series Poacher. Airing in India last year, the show enabled her to combine her work with her dedication to protecting endangered species, recognising the power of film and TV as tools for conveying environmental messages.

Instead of acting in the show, Bhatt was an executive producer. In the crime drama, forest officials try to uncover a poaching ring, addressing the critical issue of the illegal wildlife trade which affects the delicate balance of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Aside from her acting career, in 2021 she launched her eco-conscious initiative Coexist, which focuses on both animal welfare and the importance of ecological conservation.

37. David Byrne

Everyone needs a little extra cheer every now and then, especially online, which is what legendary musician and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne had in mind in 2018 when he created nonprofit news magazine, Reasons To Be Cheerful.

“The negativity bias is a big deal. We’ve evolved as a species, as most animals do, to be aware of negative things in the environment around us and to be attracted to those more than we would be to things that are good,” Byrne told George Washington University last year.

The online platform has a growing audience for its evidence-based, positive news items and stories covering solutions to the climate crisis, nature loss, homelessness and mental health issues to name a few.

38. Don Cheadle

Actor and Goodwill United Nations Ambassador Don Cheadle has previously asked “what is more important than food and clean air?” Such a simple sentence, which gets to the crux of what we’re fighting for, serves as a simple reminder of the key issues at stake.

He was one of the founders of the Not On Our Watch Project in 2008 which has since merged with The Sentry organisation, involving other celebrities like George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. The organisation urges leaders to protect vulnerable, marginalised and displaced communities, such those in Darfur in Sudan. For this work, he and Clooney were awarded the Summit Peace Award.

Cheadle also worked with actor Harrison Ford to create Years of Living Dangerously, a documentary TV series tackling climate issues.

39. Gretchen Bleiler

While travelling the world for snowboarding competitions, Olympian Gretchen Bleiler has witnessed first-hand what impact climate change is having on winter and the sport she loves.

She sits on the board Protect Our Winters (POW), an organisation that raises awareness about the environmental threats facing mountain ecosystems, and encourages the winter sports community to take action.

40. Jane Fonda

Activism has long been an important part of life for Jane Fonda. From her days of anti-Vietnam war campaigning in the 1960s, the 86-year-old actor now channels her energy into climate activism.

Fonda has been arrested five times for civil disobedience while marching and protesting in recent years. In 2019, Fonda launched Fire Drill Fridays alongside Greenpeace, a series of weekly protests in Washington DC to urge political leaders to take stronger action on climate change.

These protests, inspired by Greta Thunberg, have managed to galvanise public support. They have since expanded into virtual events that educate people about climate justice, sustainability, and environmental policy.

She also founded the Jane Fonda Climate political action committee, which raises money to defeat the fossil fuel industry’s influence on US politics and elect climate champions across government.

41. Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio started his eponymous foundation in 1998, having been inspired by watching nature documentaries as a child. Since then, the foundation has funded over 200 projects across more than 50 countries, protecting endangered species, restoring ecosystems, providing clean water and funding renewable energy.

DiCaprio is a UN Messenger of Peace for Climate Change and has had the most impact reaching audiences through hard-hitting documentaries he has produced, including Before the Flood (2016) and Ice on Fire (2019).

Most recently he narrated the climate documentary, Carbon, and in 2021 he starred alongside Jennifer Lawrence in Don’t Look Up, a film about an asteroid on track to destroy the earth, and a thinly-veiled analogy for the climate crisis.

In the past year, he has backed a campaign calling for Scotland to become the first “Rewilding Nation” in the world.

42. Lewis Pugh

British-South African former maritime lawyer Lewis Pugh is an endurance swimmer and prominent speaker on the devastating problem of plastic pollution and the effects of the climate crisis on our rivers and oceans.

He plans long-distance swims in some of the planet’s most vulnerable and challenging waters – including the Arctic and Antarctic – to highlight the importance of marine conservation. In 2022, he swam 100 miles across the Red Sea to underline the impact of climate change on fragile coral reefs.

Last year, he swam all 315 miles of the Hudson River and wrote an opinion piece about it for The Independent to highlight the importance of clean rivers. He also became the first person to swim the full length of the River Thames in 2006.

He is a United Nations Patron of the Oceans, and part of the 30x30 campaign, which aims to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030. His work, and epic swims, are inspiring global efforts to safeguard marine ecosystems.

43. Mark Ruffalo

The anti-fracking movement’s most famous face, actor Mark Ruffalo has been an environmentalist for years, and uses the term “fractivists” to describe this particular branch of activism.

He is often found among other celebrities campaigning on environmental issues. In 2016 he, Colin Firth and the late Vivienne Westwood wrote an open letter to then prime minister David Cameron to oppose fracking. In 2013, he co-founded The Solutions Project, an organisation committed to promoting 100 per cent renewable energy.

His environmental ethos can be found in his on-screen work too. In 2020, he starred in and produced Dark Waters, which is based on a true story. He plays Robert Bilott, who left his job as a corporate lawyer to become an environmental activist campaigning to stop a chemical company knowingly using harmful toxins in its products.

In February, Ruffalo worked with politicians in New York to try to ban a new type of fracking, following up on a successful campaign to ban the drilling practice in the state in 2014. The new variety swaps the use of water for pressurised carbon dioxide to get at methane trapped in shale. Fracking companies say this is a carbon-neutral fuel operation, but “fractivists” disagree.

44. Sting

A British singer and an Amazonian tribal chief may seem unlikely friends, but environmentalism brought Sting and Chief Raoni Metuktire (also included in this list) of the Brazilian Kayapo tribe together.

After Metuktire asked for his help in protecting their Indigenous land and people, Sting, along with his wife Trudie Styler, founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of deforestation and the rights of Indigenous people. For nearly four decades, the fund has donated to projects that have saved 28 million acres in 20 different rainforest countries.

In 2021, Sting repurposed his song, Message in a Bottle, into a powerful call for action on climate change aimed at world leaders attending Cop26, urging them to “do something now” for the planet.

45. King Charles III and Prince William

Since he was a young man, King Charles III has been a green champion, long before sustainability became the buzzword it is today. It’s a trait that appears to have been passed down to his son and heir, Prince William, who has picked up the baton and launched his own initiative to tackle the climate crisis.

The king was head of the Duchy Estate for seven decades (a role now passed to Prince William), and he has been a tireless champion of organic food and agriculture.

For his unwavering focus on green issues, Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England and former director of Friends of the Earth, praised the king as “possibly the most significant environmentalist in history”. It is something that he has continued since ascending to the throne, installing the first solar panels on Windsor Castle and using biofuel in royal cars as he strives to reach net zero within the palace walls.

Prince William, who has followed in the footsteps of his environmentalist father and philanthropist mother, used his speech at the celebrations for the Queen’s platinum jubilee in 2022 to talk publicly about climate change.

Although we have “increased our awareness of the impact humans have on our world, our planet has become more fragile”, he said, and “the pressing need to protect and restore our planet has never been more urgent”.

The Prince of Wales’ flagship initiative is the Earthshot Prize, launched four years ago. It supports young innovators from around the world in their ambitious attempts to solve our biggest environmental problems, from ocean pollution to poor air quality, by awarding five winners with £1m each.

46. Pharrell Williams

Alongside his successful music career, Pharrell Williams has been talking about the climate crisis for years. In 2015, he spoke to the UN General Assembly on the subject, urging gathered leaders to move beyond talk to action.

That same year he and former US vice president and Noble Peace Prize winner, Al Gore, launched Live Earth, a series of concerts to raise awareness on the climate crisis. The unlikely duo hosted concerts on all seven continents with over 100 artists.

Williams is also the creative director of Bionic Yarn, a fashion company which uses recycled ocean plastic as clothing fibres. Though it works positively to take plastics from the ocean, polyester clothing comes with its own issues as it releases microplastics every time it is washed.

Food & Agriculture

47. Dr Geoffrey Hawtin and Dr Cary Fowl

The winners of 2024’s World Food Prize, Dr Geoffrey Hawtin and Dr Cary Fowl were awarded the honour for their work in safeguarding seeds.

Together they’re renowned as the fathers of the Global Seed Vault, having played key roles in establishing it. Today it holds 1.25 million seed samples of more than 6,000 plant species in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle.

The globally-respected agricultural scientists have worked towards the preservation of global crop diversity, crucial for food security.

With a career spanning decades, Hawtin has been instrumental in ensuring the sustainability of global food systems, while Fowler has championed the conservation of plant genetic resources.

48. Marcus Samuelsson

Award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson owns a number of restaurants across the US and was the youngest chef to receive a three-star rating from the New York Times at just 24. He was born in Ethiopia, but his mother died of tuberculosis when he was young during the early years of the country’s civil war. He was adopted in Gothenburg, Sweden, and later moved to the US.

His 2006 cookbook The Soul of a New Cuisine, based on Ethiopian food, won the James Beard Foundation’s Best International Cookbook award and helped reshape American cuisine.

Recognising the climate crisis and conflict have caused world hunger to rise, Samuelsson and his wife Maya Gate Haile started the Three Goats Organization, which supports Ethiopian families by providing access to food and water during floods, heatwaves and other climate-induced disasters.

Samuelsson has since gone on to become an investor and advisor for Aleph Farms, a company pioneering cultivated meat: a more sustainable alternative to traditional meat production. In his own restaurants, he doesn’t use palm oil, champions urban farms and sources local produce while reducing food waste.

49. Ethan Brown

Ethan Brown is the founder, president and CEO of Beyond Meat. With the aim of creating a meat-free burger that looks, tastes and behaves in the same way as its meaty counterparts, Beyond Meat’s burgers stormed the market in 2016.

The burger is designed to help reduce carbon emissions from beef farming, and its USP made it the world’s first “bleeding” vegan burger. Looking like any other juicy patty with the help of beetroot and pomegranate juice, it totally changed the face of the meat-alternative market.

Made from proteins such as pea, brown rice, mung bean and faba bean, it was a revolutionary product created at the height of the “Veganuary” movement, when people challenged themselves to eat a vegan diet for a month, and hopefully beyond that.

After entering the stock market in 2019, the company’s name changed to BYND and it has gone on to make meat-free sausages, jerky, nuggets and even fillet and mince. Though the company has since struggled to make a profit in the US (in part due to Covid) in the past year, it has been gaining momentum in Europe and is focusing on achieving price parity with actual meat products, as well as cutting its saturated fat by 60 per cent.

50. Nidhi Pant

Combating food waste, rural poverty and gender inequality – three of the Indian farming community’s biggest issues – is S4S Technologies, which was co-founded in 2013 by Nidhi Pant and six university friends.

It creates pioneering solar-powered dehydrators, which are used to prevent food waste. By drying food out without using electricity, it enables rural smallholder farmers to financially benefit from being able to sell their entire crop. Previously around 30 per cent could be lost due to bad weather, being misshapen or market price fluctuations. It’s a life-changing move for rural farmers living in poverty.

Since it began, S4S Technologies has helped provide sustainable incomes for around 300,000 rural farming women, vastly improving gender inequality in the process.

Pant was awarded the Earthshot Prize in 2023 by Prince William. Using the funding, the team wants to have reached three million smallholders, and aims to have removed 10 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere by next year.

51. Sean Sherman

Chef Sean Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, was inspired to preserve his own heritage by the time he spent in Mexico with the Indigenous Huichol people.

That led to him founding The Sioux Chef company, which promotes food sovereignty by championing and educating others on Indigenous cultures and the importance of their environmental stewardship.

His ethos is to source local, wild and heirloom ingredients and follow the sustainable practices that Indigenous communities have used for generations, which are far less taxing on the environment than many modern approaches.

In 2021 Sherman and restaurateur Dana Thompson founded the restaurant Owamni (which translates to the place of falling, swirling water) in Minneapolis. The following year, it won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant.

It is mostly staffed by Indigenous people and serves Indigenous dishes without ingredients introduced by Europeans, such as butter, black pepper and sugar. Since 2023 it has been run as a non-profit. For his work, Sherman won the prestigious Julia Child Award in 2023.

NGOs, Non-Profits & Philanthropists

52. Al Gore

After leaving public office as US vice president in 2001, Nobel laureate Al Gore has become one of the best known leaders in the climate fight.

He founded the Climate Reality Project in 2005, which has trained more than 3.5 million people worldwide, empowering them to devise climate solutions for their communities. The following year, Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth brought the realities of climate change to the fore and sparked a global conversation.

Last year, he directly named the fossil fuel industry as a core perpetrator in creating and perpetuating the global climate crisis. The “fossil fuel industry speaks with forked tongue” as he memorably said at NYC Climate Week 2023, over oil and gas companies’ deceptive tactics.

Gore has never shied away from controversial remarks in the name of climate progress. Last year, he condemned the United Nations, saying it had gone “too far” in naming Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as president of the Cop28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates.

53. António Guterres

For the past five years, under the leadership of Secretary General António Guterres, the United Nations has intensified efforts to push for ambitious climate action, urging countries to meet and exceed the goals of 2015’s legally-binding Paris Agreement.

Guterres frames the climate crisis as the defining issue of our time, championing the need to transition to renewable energy, reduce carbon emissions and protect vulnerable communities.

At Cop28 in Dubai this past December, he kept up the pressure to make the event ambitious, despite heavy criticism of the choice of the oil-heavy UAE as host. The summit ended with a historic deal which acknowledged for the first time the need to start transitioning away from all oil, coal and gas this decade, with a view to reaching net zero by 2050. (The world currently is far off course from this target.)

Guterres continues to push for global net-zero by 2050, though he now thinks richer nations should aim for 2040, and calls for greater international cooperation to address biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.

54. Mary Robinson

After serving as Ireland’s first female president, Mary Robinson, a lifelong champion of human rights, has established her own climate group, Project Dandelion, which pushes for women to be prioritised within the climate crisis response.

As well as advocating for women, she also emphasises the need for inclusive solutions that properly serve the needs of marginalised communities. For her work, she has become one of the most highly respected people in the climate conversation.

Last year, Project Dandelion launched a short film, We Are Dandelions, in which Robinson features alongside other influential women in the movement. It premiered at the virtual Unite for Climate Solutions: A Women-Led Summit event, ahead of Cop28.

In an interview with The Independent last year, she explained that she thinks the US, which is responsible for the largest share of historic greenhouse gas emissions, could do more in the fight against the climate crisis.

“They are not good on climate finance to help developing countries because they have such a divided Congress,” she said. “It’s such a politicised issue here in the United States.” She added the US is also “not good” at reducing emissions, in light of the Biden administration creating new opportunities for fossil fuel development.

55. Bill Gates

Though best known for founding Microsoft and his philanthropy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates is pouring a significant amount of his time and wealth into tackling the climate crisis. He founded the investment firm Breakthrough Energy in 2015, which backs tech companies focused on climate solutions.

His approach to net zero is grounded in his tech world background. He said in an interview with Fortune last year that “planting trees will not solve the climate problem” and added that “doing climate policy by brute force will not work either”.

He believes the answer is to “invest in new technologies for carbon removal, clean energy, and electric vehicles and to implement policies like carbon taxes that could fund future green technologies”.

In his 2021 book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, he outlined a comprehensive plan for reaching net-zero emissions, emphasising the importance of global cooperation and innovation.

Earlier this year while speaking at the Breakthrough Energy summit, Gates voiced concerns that political backlash against green policies in developed countries could hamper the climate fight.

56. Brian O’Donnell

Within the wider conversation about the climate crisis, nature can often be forgotten. But in 2023, Brian O’Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature, launched the Nature Positive Initiative - a coalition of 27 of the world’s largest conservation organisations, institutes, business and finance firms - with the aim of delivering nature-positive outcomes.

“Nature positive by 2030” refers to halting and even reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

O’Donnell said: “With nature facing immense challenges, a united global effort to halt and reverse biodiversity loss is essential. The Nature Positive Initiative provides a platform to converge in support of an overarching goal for nature, one that offers a hope for a better future for life on earth.”

57. Darren Walker

As president of the Ford Foundation, an investment fund that supports social justice philanthropy, Darren Walker is responsible for overseeing an endowment of $16bn (£12bn). It is one of the US’s largest private foundations and he is credited with redirecting its approach in grant-giving towards addressing inequality and social justice.

In October 2021, Walker moved the Ford Foundation away from investments in fossil fuels and towards opportunities in renewables. Since then, the foundation has directed significant resources towards environmental initiatives, supporting renewable energy solutions and climate-resilient communities.

Recently, the foundation announced the 26th class of Ford Global Fellows, a diverse group of people tackling the climate crisis and environmental injustice head-on with the support of the programme.

After 11 years at the helm, Walker recently announced he will be leaving the role in 2025.

58. Helen Clarkson

Helen Clarkson’s career path hasn’t been conventional. After tackling humanitarian crises while working for Médecins Sans Frontières in countries including Sudan and Pakistan, she switched her focus to the planet’s wellbeing.

She’s now the CEO of The Climate Group, a non-profit driving businesses towards net-zero emissions, which also runs the annual Climate Week event, held every September in New York. Clarkson is responsible for taking Climate Week from its humble beginnings in 2009 as a panel discussion to the globally important, myriad of events it is now.

She advocates for systemic change, pushing for ambitious climate policies and fostering collaboration between businesses and governments. In 2022, she was awarded an OBE for services to environmentalism and supporting the UK’s presidency of Cop26.

59. Inger Andersen

Inger Andersen is a Danish economist who leads the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Among her recent achievements is leading global negotiations on plastic pollution, which seem to moving towards an international legally binding deal to tackle a burgeoning global problem, both for the environment and public health.

“To stop plastic pollution, we need to start at the start and end at the end,” she said earlier this year. “This means crafting an instrument that ensures we use fewer virgin materials and less problematic plastic.

“That we design for circularity. That we use, reuse and recycle resources more efficiently. This is the instrument we need to protect human and ecosystem health – while ensuring a just transition and space for the private sector to thrive in a new sustainable economy.”

There is hope that a final, lasting deal may emerge from the UNEP meeting in South Korea this November.

60. Juan Carlos Jintiach

Juan Carlos Jintiach is a member of the Shuar People of the Ecuadorian Amazon. He has become a powerful voice among indigenous communities on the frontlines of deforestation.

As executive secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC), he represents 35 million people managing vast swathes of forests across 24 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and believes Indigenous communities are the best stewards of their territories, having lived in harmony with nature for generations.

He is also a technical adviser to the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), a major Amazonian Indigenous federation.

The GATC have created Shandia, which is a high-level platform that is dedicated to supporting Indigenous funds, as well as effective and sustainable funding, and ensuring accurate tracking of funds. For his work, last year he was shortlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize.

61. Lisbet Rausing

As heiress to Sweden’s Tetra-Pak business, a science historian, co-founder of philanthropic foundations Arcadia and the Lund Trust, and a landowner in Scotland, Lisbet Rausing has many strings to her bow. Collectively, they all play a part in her environmental work.

Rausing owns the 57,000-acre Corrour Estate in the Scottish Highlands, and since 2015 has worked on environmental projects including deer management, planting native woodlands, restoring peat bogs and reintroducing red squirrels.

This year, Corrour Estate joined Loch Abar Mòr, a nature preservation partnership that already included the National Trust for Scotland, Glenaladale Estate, The Woodland Trust, Glen Nevis Estate and the Nevis Landscape Partnership.

Together, they will restore a large part of the Lochaber area in the Highlands to make it more ecologically diverse and so more resilient to the effects of the climate crisis over the next 50 years.

Rausing is also vocal on championing women and wrote an impassioned piece for The Independent Women’s List 2023.

62. MacKenzie Scott

An author and philanthropist, MacKenzie Scott is still perhaps best-known for who she used to be married to – Amazon billionaire, Jeff Bezos. But since 2019, she has emerged as a major force in environmental giving.

Scott has donated $15m (£12m) to Global Fishing Watch, an independent nonprofit that creates and shares data on the ocean to increase the transparency of fisheries and help improve marine resilience.

She has also donated $20m to Blue Ventures, which supports coastal communities and small-scale fishing operations.

Scott’s approach to funding is unique: her grants are “unrestricted”, which gives organisations more autonomy and helps empower grassroots groups living and working on the frontline of environmental issues.

63. Michael Bloomberg

Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, has a two-pronged approach to fighting the climate crisis - policy advocacy and financial innovation.

During his 11 years as mayor he reduced the city’s carbon footprint by 13 per cent. Since leaving politics, he has continued to call for the phasing-out of coal power and through Bloomberg Philanthropies, created a $500m fund dedicated to closing coal plants and transitioning to cleaner energy sources.

He also advocates for sustainable finance with his initiatives promoting better climate risk disclosure by companies and encouraging greater private sector investment in clean technologies.

He was also the most generous charitable donor in the US last year, according to Chronicle of Philanthropy’s top-50 list, which reported he donated $3bn to causes including the arts, education, environment and public health.

64. Mithika Mwenda

Mithika Mwenda is the co-founder and executive director of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), a collection of more than 70 organisations not affiliated with the government that have come together to address problems around the climate crisis.

Mwenda has worked in the climate sector for a decade and has a strong influence over climate policy. He advocates for sustainable solutions that are specifically tailored to the needs of African countries rather than those of the Western world, while also ensuring Africa’s development.

Last year, the PACJA criticised the decision to appoint oil executive Sultan al-Jaber to lead Cop28, a move it called the “lowest moment” for the UN. Mwenda also said it was “hard to see al-Jaber leading objective, science-backed negotiations in the interest of the most vulnerable”.

In May this year, the PACJA hosted the UN Civil Society Conference in Kenya – the first time the event has been held there – as a precursor to the Summit of the Future at the UN in New York this month.

Politics & Government

65. Dalton Tagelagi

Dalton Tagelagi is premier of the tiny Pacific island nation of ​​Niue, home to just 1,700 people, and has come up with a revolutionary idea to help protect the island. His plan is essentially to attract sponsors for sections of the ocean that surrounds it, which is vital for the livelihoods of Niue’s inhabitants.

He launched the initiative in September last year, offering people and companies the chance to protect one square kilometre of water surrounding the island from the worsening threat of illegal fishing (which can deplete stocks for locals who rely on it) and plastic pollution for 20 years, by paying $148 (£114). It is a bold and ingenious move that he is hoping will inspire other nations to take similar action.

If all goes to plan, 127,000 sq km will be sold, raising more than $18m. The money will go towards improving the island’s resilience against climate impacts such as rising sea levels and more intense tropical storms.

66. Ed Miliband

The former leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband is the new UK government’s secretary of state for energy security and net zero – a key position in Sir Keir Starmer’s administration. The role is similar to the one he held 14 years ago when Labour was last in government under Gordon Brown, underlining Miliband’s commitment to the issue and his vast knowledge of it.

During his tenure as secretary of state for energy and climate change between 2008 and 2010, he played a pivotal role in shaping the UK’s Climate Change Act.

Just two days after he was appointed to the role again in July 2024, he lifted the offshore wind ban, then quickly increased the renewable energy budget to a record figure of more than £15bn. Of that, £1.1bn will be allocated to offshore wind, which is set to “accelerate the delivery of clean, cheap, low-carbon electricity to families”, according to the energy department’s statement. Miliband has set a precedent for enacting positive change in his time in the role so far.

67. Lee Hsien Loong

The former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, left office in May after serving for 20 years, though he will stay on as a senior minister. During that time, he has been the driving force for the city-state’s large-scale climate adaptations.

Under his leadership, Singapore has advanced as a global leader in urban sustainability with initiatives such as the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which aims to reduce the country’s carbon footprint, promote clean energy and enhance urban biodiversity.

One of his greatest achievements is the innovation of NEWater, the city’s recycled water initiative, and the subsequent roll out of its plants for public use of the reused water, which has turned Singapore into a model example for urban water management.

He has also encouraged the development of more green spaces and the implementation of smart city technologies to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

68. Sadiq Khan

London mayor Sadiq Khan, who secured a third term in May 2024, has been a powerhouse when it comes to fighting the climate crisis in the British capital. He has made significant strides in reducing the city’s carbon footprint, with a particular focus on tackling air pollution.

Khan’s most notable policy has also been his most controversial, but his re-election shows support for the Ulez (Ultra Low Emission Zone) scheme, while similar models have been adopted in other cities and areas of the UK.

In an opinion piece forThe Independent‘s Climate 100 series, he calls London’s air pollution the “gravest environmental threat to human health… with our poorest citizens and minority ethnic communities suffering the worst effects”.

He adds: “Since its introduction, the Ulez has proved to be one of the most effective public health and environmental initiatives established anywhere in the world and remains at the centre of our efforts to clean up London’s air.”

Under new Ulez rules, roadside nitrogen dioxide levels have been halved since 2016, pollution has been cut by over 20 per cent in outer London, and the capital’s “air quality is improving at a faster rate than the rest of England’s average,” he says.

69. Lord Deben (John Gummer)

Tory peer Lord Deben, also known as John Gummer, has been a steadfast advocate for environmentalism for decades. He served as Conservative Party chairman under Margaret Thatcher and as environment secretary in John Major’s government, but more recently he was the chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) between 2012 and 2023.

In this role he played a crucial part in shaping the nation’s climate policies and guiding the UK towards its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Despite the CCC being the government’s own watchdog on climate, he has spoken out about worries the previous government would not meet its climate targets. In June last year he said they had been “too slow to act”.

As part of The Independent‘s Climate 100 series, he writes that despite the crisis surging on, it is still within our collective power to mitigate its effects.

70. Marina Silva

Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva has dedicated most of her career to saving the Amazon rainforest.

As a native Amazonian from a rubber-tapper family, Silva is serving as environment minister for the second time, having also held the role from 2003 to 2008. Back then, she implemented policies that significantly reduced deforestation rates, and she is continuing that work now.

It was recently reported that deforestation is down to its lowest level since 2016, a development that Silva has had a hand in. She believes protecting the Amazon rainforest, two thirds of which is in Brazil, is the key to staving off the worst effects of the climate crisis.

Silva is regarded as one of the most influential ministers in Brazil thanks to her work to rebuild the country’s capacity to halt rampant illegal deforestation in the Amazon. She has also been a staunch defender of Indigenous rights and biodiversity.

71. William Ruto

After serving as deputy president for nearly a decade, William Ruto has been president of Kenya since 2022. Under his leadership, Kenya has continued to expand its renewables sector, particularly in geothermal, wind, and solar power. Ruto has also emphasised the importance of reforestation and the protection of natural resources. He introduced an annual tree-planting holiday last November as part of his larger ambition for Kenya to plant 15 billion trees in 10 years.

He pledged to end the use of fossil fuels in Kenya’s electricity production by 2030 and has encouraged sustainable farming practices and water management. Last September, he hosted the first Africa Climate Summit in the capital, Nairobi, which ended in a joint declaration demanding that major polluters commit more resources to helping poorer nations.

However in June, huge riots took place during which the parliament building was set on fire, resulting in the loss of at least 40 lives. This came after Ruto’s controversial finance bill, which many Kenyans believed would be unaffordable, and was proposed following the restructuring of Kenya’s international debt earlier this year.

After the riots, many measures were dropped, but the proposed taxes on eco-measures, which included items such as disposable nappies, are being amended.

72. Mia Mottley

Mia Mottley is a woman of many firsts, including becoming the first female prime minister of Barbados in 2018, and also the first prime minister to serve after Barbados became a republic in November 2021. The following year, she announced her landmark Bridgetown Initiative, which proposes to entirely reform how global debt works.

The plan calls for wealthier nations to contribute far more financially to the global climate fight, as poorer nations are bearing the physical and financial brunt of the crisis, despite having contributed the least to it.

After floods, hurricanes or droughts, poorer nations struggle to financially rebuild due to their high debt rates. These can be as high as 12-14 per cent in poorer nations, compared to just 1-4 per cent for wealthier counties.

Mottley argues that if these high repayment interest rates are not paused or even cancelled – as was done for some countries after the Second World War – then they could be a death sentence for countries like hers.

73. Theresa May

The second woman to serve as the UK’s prime minister, Theresa May committed the country to a legally binding target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, making the UK the first major economy to make such a commitment.

In 2018, the country was gripped by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, which showed the devastating effects of plastic pollution. That year, May introduced her landmark 25-Year Environment Plan, aimed at improving air and water quality and biodiversity, as well reducing plastic waste in the oceans and waterways.

She also instituted a UK ban on microbeads often found in toiletries, and extended the 5p charge for plastic bags from just supermarkets to all shops.

Since leaving office, May has dedicated herself to the eradication of modern slavery – a complex global human rights issue that is being exacerbated by the climate crisis.

74. Joe Biden

After his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the global Paris Agreement in 2017, US President Joe Biden marked his first day in office by rejoining the accord, setting the tone for his administration, and making it clear to the world that America was back in the climate fight.

Throughout his presidency, the US has reinvigorated international climate diplomacy, leading global efforts and promoting sustainable development.

On the domestic front, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has seen billions of dollars invested in renewables, electric vehicles and other green technologies, the largest investment in clean energy in US history.

Earlier this year, Biden ordered coal-fired power plants to use carbon removal technology to clean up their emissions entirely in 10 years or face closure. The order was the biggest climate initiative the president has attempted since passing the IRA.

75. Zac Goldsmith

Zac Goldsmith says his lifelong commitment to environmentalism was inspired as a child by the naturalist Gerald Durrell’s books and David Attenborough’s documentaries, and he has been a vocal advocate for conservation, climate action and animal welfare throughout his career.

Goldsmith championed the UK’s landmark ban on ivory sales and led efforts to combat deforestation and protect endangered species. As an MP and now as a peer, he has pushed for stronger policies on air quality, plastic waste reduction and renewable energy.

He served as minister of state for climate, environment and energy for the Conservative government until resigning in June 2023, citing Rishi Sunak’s apathy towards environmentalism. He also previously labelled Boris Johnson’s government’s climate policy as “in effect, a lie”.

Reader’s Choice

76. Dr Ye Tao

https://www.meer.org/our-directors/dr-ye-tao

After becoming increasingly aware of the climate emergency, Dr Ye Tao sacrificed his career at Harvard University to concentrate his efforts on finding climate solutions, and went to found Meer (Mirroring Earth’s Energy Rebalancing).

He was the person nominated the most times by our readers, who described him as a “true unsung climate hero” for dedicating his work to some of the most pressing issues of our time.

Dr Ye has been in Sierra Leone since January, where he is working on the Cool Down Freetown Project, which is replacing roofs in Kroo Bay (a coastal part of Freetown, the country’s capital) with Meer’s roofs, which are made from thin reflective surfaces that can be built using recycled materials.

The design helps cool down rooms by reflecting light back before it has the chance to become heat: a life-changing innovation in the face of rising temperatures. As well as having designed them, he is often helping to fit them, too.

77. Wolfgang Blau

Wolfgang Blau began his career as a radio journalist and news editor in Germany before climbing the ranks at Condé Nast, and is now the managing partner of Brunswick’s global climate hub. Here he advises businesses and governments on climate issues, and is also an advisor for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Blau co-founded the Oxford Climate Journalism Network at Oxford University, which launched in 2022 and is designed for reporters and editors who already report on the climate crisis, or want to bring the issue to the forefront of their journalism. Every year, it trains around 250 journalists from the world’s top publications.

78. Ellen MacArthur

Best known for single-handedly circumnavigating the world in 2005, Ellen MacArthur, aged just 28 at the time, covered 27,354-miles in a trimaran boat. She broke the previous record by one day, eight hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds, and was awarded a damehood.

She retired from sailing in 2010 and launched the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity that works with business, policymakers and academics to push for a closed-loop circular economy to eliminate waste and pollution from our oceans and land.

The idea is that waste is prevented by giving it value and a new life and thus keeping it out of landfill, benefiting the environment and people alike.

79. Hannah Ritchie

In a world of disinformation, fake news and images are becoming ever more prevalent. Data scientist and communicator Hannah Ritchie, head of research at Our World in Data, has made it her mission to debunk climate myths through the use of big data. She tackles some of the world’s biggest problems within environmentalism, from misinformation around EVs to food miles and heat pumps, among other subjects.

One reader’s nomination for Ritchie said: “Her evidence-based approach cuts through the climate culture wars like a knife through plant-based butter.”

Ritchie has given a TED Talk on whether we are the last generation on our planet or the first sustainable one. It’s a thought-provoking subject she has also turned into a book, which was published earlier this year and is titled: Not the End of the World: How We Can Be The First Generation To Build A Sustainable Planet.

80. Dale Vince

Climate campaigner and green industrialist Dale Vince has come up with a solution to the problem of how to run outdoor events without mains power, which uses more than 12 million litres of oil per year in the UK alone.

His Stroud-based green energy company Ecotricity, which he started at Glastonbury 30 years ago, has become a big business, selling green energy to consumers and pioneering the use of huge industrial batteries relying solely on wind power.

In August his company powered an outdoor Massive Attack gig in Bristol with 30,000 attendees, entirely without any diesel backup, the first time such a large event has been put on using this method.

Vince has been a climate campaigner for over 30 years and has never been afraid to call out big industrial farming for its contribution to the global crisis. His debut book, Manifesto, was published in 2020. It details his unwavering commitment to the environment, and discusses the road to a greener Britain. He also runs Forest Green Rovers, the world’s first carbon-neutral football club.

Scientists & Academics

81. Ali Abbas

The fight to curb the plastic pollution epidemic had a eureka moment last year when Ali Abbas, an Australian chemical engineering professor, and his research team, found that two common moulds could break down plastics.

The two types of fungi – Aspergillus terreus and Engyodontium album – are found in plants and soil and can break down polypropylene when it is put under UV light. Polypropylene is used to make many common, difficult-to-recycle items such as takeaway containers, ice cream tubs and cling film.

Plans are in place to scale up the process within three to five years, and eventually it will be sped up too, so plastics can be completely broken down when exposed to UV rays in less than the current 140 days.

The process should be a helpful part of the solution to the problem of plastic pollution, but many plastics destined for recycling still end up in landfill, so it’s not a silver bullet. The main answer to the problem is still a drastically reduced reliance on virgin plastics.

82. David Attenborough

No one has been a greater force in raising awareness of the climate and environmental crises than Sir David Attenborough.

The British documentarian and naturalist is behind dozens of TV series, beaming unforgettable portraits of animals and plants in their natural habitats into the homes of millions around the world. His enthusiasm, love and respect for our uniquely diverse planet has inspired generations of scientists, academics, conservationists and activists.

Known as the “voice of nature”, Sir David is still working and broadcasting with his signature eloquence at the age of 98. He has presented from some of the world’s toughest environments, and at every opportunity, uses his platform to advocate for immediate action to combat environmental degradation.

He has also done this through TV programmes including Natural World, Wildlife on One and the Planet Earth series. The Blue Planet is regarded as having drawn attention to the global problem of plastic pollution. His latest series, Mammals, which aired in February, explores the threat human progress has posed to every other species on earth.

In a video message to mark World Environment Day 2020, he said: “Suddenly, saving our planet is within reach. We have a plan. We know what to do.

“Stop the damaging stuff, roll out the new green tech, stabilise the human population as low as we fairly can, keep hold of the natural wealth we have currently got, and we’ll have built a stable, healthy world that we can benefit from forever.

“We now have a choice to create a planet that we can all be proud of, our planet. The perfect home for ourselves and the rest of life on Earth.”

83. Dr Peter Davis and Dr Britney Schmidt

Polar oceanographer Dr Peter Davis and planetary scientist Dr Britney Schmidt have discovered an important understanding into how glaciers behave. With the help of a robot called Icefin, which they sent into a 600m deep borehole, they measured the melting ice under the Thwaites Glacier, part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, also known as the “Doomsday” glacier. It’s one of the world’s fastest-changing glaciers, and at 74,000 square miles, it is nearly the size of Great Britain.

Though the melt rate across the ice base averaged two to five metres per year (less than previously thought) they found that parts of the bottom of the ice shelf are melting up to 10 times faster due to crevasses allowing heat to get to the ice much more quickly. That is weakening the shelf, and if it collapses, the sea level could rise by 65cm.

Schmidt said: “These new ways of observing the glacier allow us to understand that it’s not just how much melting is happening, but how and where it is happening that matters.”

84. Dr Dawn Wright

In 2022 the geographer, oceanographer and chief scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), Dr Dawn Wright, became the first Black person to reach the deepest known part of the seabed, the bottom of Challenger Deep. Found in the western Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, it is 10,971m below the surface.

The descent mapped the ocean floor to gain a more detailed understanding of our oceans and humanity’s impact on them. To date, barely one fifth of the seabed has been mapped in detail, but Wright has made it her mission to change that. She has written and contributed to some definitive literature on marine geographical information systems technology.

For her work on the deep waters, this year Wright has been selected to be part of the US Science Envoy Programme, which helps gather information to better understand the oceans. Made up of four distinguished scientists, the group is the first all-female cohort in the history of the programme.

85. Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and co-founder of the nonprofit Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for policy on coastal cities. She’s long promoted ocean conservation and co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy.

She has also been involved with environmental policy, written books and articles on the subject, and co-hosted the podcast How To Save A Planet.

This year adding to her long history of climate work, she published her own book, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures. The book is a collection of essays, poems and musings on potential climate futures by people working in areas ranging from farming to architecture, that offers hope, joy and new perspectives. It acknowledges the idea that there may be many different solutions to the climate emergency - not just one sole plan of action.

86. Fatih Birol

Fatih Birol is the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which helps countries to form energy policy. He is known for championing the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future, and emphasising the need for urgent, coordinated global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C.

Last year, he said the war in Gaza has proven that “oil and gas are no longer safe choices”, adding that the Middle East crisis could accelerate the move to clean energy.

Renewables grew rapidly in 2023 and Birol said earlier this year that renewable energy use will increase by 2.5 times by 2030, but that that would still fall short of the tripling that nations agreed at the Cop28 climate summit. He added that the goal is still reachable, though success hinges on increasing funds for clean energy in developing countries.

87. Jane Goodall

Dr Jane Goodall’s name is synonymous with her groundbreaking work on the study of chimpanzees, which she began in 1960. She is a renowned conservationist and ethologist (scientific study of animals in their natural habitat), and at 90, she continues to show an unwavering commitment to conservation.

Through the Jane Goodall Institute, her work focuses on education and community conservation projects. In 1991, she set up Roots & Shoots, supporting young people to work on environmental, conservation, and humanitarian issues. In 2023, Goodall launched the Trees for Jane campaign, promoting tree planting and forest preservation worldwide.

Speaking to The Independent last year she said the world had squandered the opportunity that Covid had presented to open back up to nature and protect the environment, though she is still hopeful that the younger generation, who make up a large section of her supporters, will change things while there is still time.

At this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Goodall took to the Greenpeace stage to warn people that their pensions could be contributing to deforestation. She said: “I urge all pension providers out there to remove completely any projects involving deforestation from their portfolios and instead invest in projects that help to protect and restore the beautiful places of our planet for future generations.”

88. Dr Kim Budil and team

For 70 years, scientists have attempted to replicate the energy process that powers the sun. In December 2022, a team in California finally managed to do it after 13 years of trying.

Fusion energy holds the promise of providing nearly limitless clean energy, and could revolutionise efforts to meet the world’s energy needs sustainably, changing the trajectory of the climate crisis.

Physicist Dr Kim Budil is the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. She is the first woman to hold the position, and it was under her leadership that the team made their historic breakthrough in nuclear fusion.

Known as a “net energy gain” – producing more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it – the experiment delivered 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of energy output.

Budil said that while “very significant hurdles” exist in the science and technology of reaching commercial nuclear fusion, it could happen in a “few” decades as opposed to the 60 or 70 years previously estimated.

89. Michael Mann

For Michael Mann, climate scientist, author and professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, the problem of climate denial has been at the heart of a major libel case that has continued for 12 years.

In February of this year, Mann, who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded $1m (£760,000) in damages after winning a case against two writers who, in a blogpost for the libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, compared Mann’s depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester, which Mann says damaged his reputation.

Mann first gained widespread attention for a graph first published in 1998 in the journal Nature that was dubbed the “hockey stick” for its dramatic illustration of the warming planet.

After the verdict was announced, Mann said: “it’s a good day for us, it’s a good day for science”. The case has become a symbol of upholding of scientific integrity in the face of disinformation.

90. Robert D. Bullard

Known as the father of environmental justice, Robert D. Bullard has campaigned and raised awareness on the connection between pollution and racism since the 1970s.

It led him to found the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, which advocates for policy changes that protect communities most impacted by pollution. He is a professor at Texas Southern University, and was appointed to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council in 2021.

More recently, his focus has been on the Justice40 Initiative, which ensures 40 per cent of federal clean energy investments reach disadvantaged communities, a crucial step towards an equitable and truly sustainable future.

This year, he is working to help Shiloh, Alabama, a town facing environmental racism. The traditional flat land has been made into a bowl after widening of the nearby Highway 84, which has been causing repeated destructive flooding for the past six years.

91. Wanjira Mathai

For Kenyan environmentalist Wanjira Mathai, activism is in her blood. She is the daughter of Wangarĩ Maathai, an environmental and political activist who in 2004 became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, for her work in fighting deforestation and encouraging sustainable development.

Her mother set up the grassroots Green Belt Movement, which Mathai continues to work on today, which has enabled 51 million trees to be planted in Kenya since 1977, tackling deeply entrenched problems of deforestation.

She runs her own organisation, the World Resources Institute Africa, which supports female entrepreneurs and is a prominent voice at the UN on climate and justice in finance.

92. Lord (Nicholas) Stern

Lord Nicholas Stern is an economist, banker, academic and author of the landmark 2006 report The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, which called on governments to act quickly not only for the environment, but also for the economy.

Last year, Stern criticised former PM Rishi Sunak’s government, saying Britain’s leadership on tackling climate change had “faded”. He has gone on to call for stronger political leadership to fight climate change.

Stern, alongside 14 other figures who were involved in the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, wrote a letter to Sunak to express their “deep concern for your government’s lackadaisical approach to international climate, nature, and environment issues”.

He also echoed worries expressed by others that the UK was no longer a leader in fighting climate change and urged Sunak to make a statement reaffirming how seriously his government was taking the climate emergency and mapping out their plan for the future.

Tech & Entrepreneurs

93. Aliou Diallo

In 2012, a discovery was made in Bourakébougou in the West African nation of Mali. A businessman, Aliou Diallo, had funded tests of a water well in the small village which had been plugged in the late Eighties after it caught fire. The tests revealed that the borehole was releasing 98 per cent natural hydrogen.

Bourakébougou subsequently became the first place in the world to get its electricity from a source of natural hydrogen, which was run through a retrofitted Ford engine.

For the village, it was a game-changer, giving people lights in their homes and public spaces for the first time. Children did better in school as they were able to study into the evening.

Diallo, his daughter and their team went on to dig more wells. Their company, Hydroma, has now drilled some 30 wells in Mali and given the country a valuable source of clean energy.

Because of the political turmoil in Mali, progress hasn’t been as quick as Diallo’s team hoped, but the company, which is based in Montreal, plans to export the natural hydrogen to neighbouring countries in Africa as soon as possible.

94. Charlot Magayi

Charlot Magayi was raised in the Mukuru slums in Nairobi, and after becoming a mother at 16, she got a job selling charcoal. On seeing the effects of charcoal fumes on her village and both her and her daughter’s health, Magayi invented a clean stove in 2017 that uses biomass to cook, reducing pollution by as much as 90 per cent.

Magayi founded her company, Mukuru Stoves, and soon became a successful entrepreneur and climate activist. The company has sold more than 400,000 stoves as of last year, and Magayi has received numerous awards, including the Earthshot Prize in 2023.

She is currently building a 30,000 square foot clean energy campus in Kenya and working on other types of new fuels that can reduce pollution and fight disease.

95. Christoph Gebald

Christoph Gebald is a mechanical engineer who co-founded a company to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and launched what has become the hottest climate tech industry in the world, carbon removal and storage.

Gebald, from Germany, started Climeworks in Switzerland with Jan Wurzbacher in 2009 while the pair were doing their PhDs at ETH Zurich. The company, whose corporate offices are in Zurich, has quickly become a darling of the global investment community and one of the potential business saviours of the environment from the ravages of climate change.

In May of this year, Climeworks officially opened its Mammoth plant in Iceland, which has been in the works for two years. When it is fully up and running it is expected to remove up to 36,000 tonnes of carbon a year from the atmosphere. That’s 10 times more than the nearest competitor, of which there are several hundred, but it is still well short of the one billion tonnes that Gebald has set as a goal to help meet the world’s net zero goals.

96. Elon Musk

Elon Musk leads Tesla, the world’s first major electric vehicle company, earning him the reputation of a green billionaire.

For a while he was at the vanguard of the climate movement, funding a $100m global contest to remove carbon from the atmosphere, called the Xprize.

But as Musk’s politics have evolved, his green reputation began to nosedive.

During an interview last month on his social media platform X, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Musk claimed that “the risk is not as high as a lot of people say it is with respect to global warming”.

Musk has also backed establishing taxes on products that emit carbon into the atmosphere, an idea that has gone nowhere politically in the US. Earlier this year, in a post widely circulated on X, he said: “The only action needed to solve climate change is a carbon tax.”

Meanwhile, Tesla is struggling with new competition in the EV sector, and high costs.

97. JB Straubel

As the fifth employee to join Tesla in early 2004, Jeffrey Brian Straubel was an early proponent of electric vehicles. For the next 15 years, he was chief technical officer as the company rose to dominate the early EV market in the US, Asia and Europe.

When he left his full time job in 2019, he took his knowledge of EVs and EV batteries with him, launching Redwood Materials, a company dedicated to creating powerful new batteries from recycled lithium-ion batteries, with some other Tesla alumni.

In an industry that is more than 70 per cent dominated by Chinese batteries, Straubel and Redwood aim to swing the pendulum on the most important and expensive part of EVs back toward the US.

Redwood began producing the fine black powder that is known as cathode active material from used batteries at a new plant in western Nevada in March. Redwood investors believe it has the best shot of any American battery startup to change the game for EVs back in favour of US manufacturers.

98. Miranda Wang

The idea of a “circular economy” - in which plastic waste is recycled into materials that can be used again - has long been at the centre of climate discussions. Miranda Wang decided to do something about it while she was still in high school in Vancouver.

The result is Novoloop, a Silicon Valley technology company that transforms plastic waste into a variety of products including footwear, sporting goods and automotive products.

Wang and her co-founder, Jeanny Yao, started the company in 2015 after working on it while in college at the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, the company reached a key milestone, announcing the construction of a pilot plant in India that will demonstrate just how much Novoloop can scale its technology into actual manufacturing.

99. Rob Niven

Among the most pollutive substances in the world after oil and gas is concrete, specifically the cement used to make it for construction of buildings around the world. In 2012, Rob Niven and his colleagues founded CarbonCure Technologies in Halifax, Nova Scotia to solve this growing climate change problem.

CarbonCure uses proprietary technologies to inject carbon dioxide captured from the process of making concrete directly into the concrete, where it is stored and poses no danger.

CarbonCure has become the largest and best known of dozens of new technology companies dedicated to making clean concrete, attracting investors such as Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Ventures and Amazon’s Climate Pledge funds. In March, the company celebrated a milestone with its concrete partners around the world: the development of 50 million cubic yards (38 million cubic metres) of low carbon concrete, which it said would be enough to fill AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas about 13 times over.

100. Ted McKlveen, David Jaramillo and Bav Roy

Ted McKlveen, David Jaramillo and Bav Roy are the co-founders of Verne, a company that is developing low-cost hydrogen storage technology for use in trucks, aeroplanes and ships, which can revolutionise fuel and thus cut out huge amounts of pollution globally.

Typically, hydrogen is stored as a liquid or as compressed gas, which makes it expensive to store and transport. Heavy-duty transportation is very difficult to decarbonise with batteries that lack energy density.

Verne is aiming to store hydrogen in its cryo-compressed state, which offers higher-density storage at a much lower cost. This opens up the possibility of more applications for hydrogen fuel cells, helping to bring down global CO2 emissions. The team has already set world records for hydrogen storage and demonstrated the power of the technology in a short space of time.