CBC article - ‘Alternative Nobel’ goes to activists who made climate change a matter of international law
Pacific Islanders behind landmark ICJ advisory opinion win Right Livelihood Award
Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio · Posted: Oct 08, 2025 6:18 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 9
A man with a beard and curly brown hair looks up and off to one side.
Vishal Prasad is the director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)
LISTEN | Full interview with climate activist Vishal Prasad:
‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ goes to activists who made climate change action a matter of international law
(...)
So in 2019, Prasad joined a group of law students at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu who were planning to take the fight against climate change to the United Nations’ highest court.
In July, the International Court of Justice delivered a landmark advisory opinion that access to a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment'” is a human right, and countries who fail to take measures to protect people from climate change could be in violation of international law.
Now, the group that helped make that happen — Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) — has been honoured with a Right Livelihood Award for their successful campaign.
