Julien Vincent awarded 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize
Recognition for his climate campaign successes
On May 25, 2022, Julien Vincent, founder and representative of the Australian environmental NGO Market Forces, was awarded the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize, an award often referred to as the “Nobel Prize for Environment”. For the second straight year, this prestigious award has been presented to NGO members who continue fighting to stop climate change by ending our dependence on coal and fossil fuels; one of 2021’s recipients was Kimiko Hirata, board member of Kiko Network and Executive Director of Climate Integrate.
Julien Vincent led a successful grassroots campaign to defund coal in Australia, a major coal exporter, culminating in commitments from the nation’s four largest banks to end funding for coal projects by 2030. Because of Julien’s activism, Australia’s major insurance companies have also agreed to cease underwriting new coal projects. His organization, Market Forces, has produced a challenging financial landscape for the Australian coal industry, a significant step toward reducing fossil fuels that hasten climate change.
Vincent’s activities have also extended to Japanese companies importing fossil fuels from Australia and coal-fired power generation projects in Southeast Asia. This year, Market Forces, together with Japanese civil society organizations and individual shareholders, submitted four shareholder resolutions calling for improved climate change action to SMBC Group, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo Electric Power Company, and Chubu Electric Power Company (the latter two are 50/50 owners of joint venture JERA). Vincent himself has been actively engaged in dialogue with the companies, stressing the urgency and importance of combating climate change.
Following is his statement prepared for the press conference:
“Experts like the International Energy Agency (IEA) clearly state that the fossil fuel industries need to stop expanding in size. However, Japan based companies stay away from transition to clean energy and are still pushing massive expansions of fossil fuels. I see the reason I have received this Prize is to reassert the importance of the movements to transform finance and investment into a force to solve environmental problems. There is not much time left to avoid the climate crisis. The Japanese major companies and/or investors need desperately to indicate the direction of renewable energy for Japan and the world, and move away from coal, oil, and gas.”
Julien Vincent, founder and representative of the Market Forces in Australia, winner of the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize (edited from his quote for a press conference on May 27th)
- Goldman Environmental Prize Homepage: Introducing the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
- Goldman Environmental Prize Homepage: Julien Vincent bio
- YouTube: 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Virtual Award Ceremony
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