OUR BLUE PLANET

The Blue Planet Prize is awarded annually to two recipients in recognition of their contributions to addressing global environmental issues. The 2025 winners are Professor Robert B. Jackson, whose research on the carbon cycle has been instrumental in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and Dr. Jeremy Leggett, who has been a vocal advocate for addressing the risks of climate change in financial markets.

In the 1990s, Professor Jackson conducted critical research into the impact of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on forests and grasslands. His experiments in a vast protected biological preserve revealed an unexpected result demonstrating the intricacy of the relationship between plants and carbon dioxide. It was initially presumed that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would promote plant growth by activating photosynthesis. However, his experiments indicated that plant growth was actually hindered by the accelerated depletion of soil nutrients essential for growth, caused by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Furthermore, they showed a decrease in the level of the carbon storage capacity of the soil. Professor Jackson has also been conducting research to measure atmospheric methane emissions and working on efforts to reduce them, as methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas that is 90 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. He believes that if human-caused methane emissions are significantly reduced, the atmosphere could be restored to its pre-industrial state within only a decade or two. To this end, he is committed to identifying sources of methane leaks and researching ways to reduce them.

The other award winner is Dr. Leggett, a social entrepreneur widely regarded as one of the Britain 's most respected green energy leaders. He founded Solarcentury in 1997 and grew the business successfully, before establishing the non-profit think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative in 2010. Under this initiative he strongly advocated that fossil fuel assets are overvalued and that a gradual withdrawal from fossil fuels is necessary to avoid a serious global financial crisis, a message that has deeply resonated with the financial sector. He is currently working on a natural ecosystem restoration project around Loch Ness in Scotland, addressing the crises of climate change and biodiversity collapse, two critical environmental issues.

We explore the future of our planet by tracing the careers and achievements of these two scientists striving to overcome the grand challenge of restoring the Earth's natural environment for future generations.