On Friday 7 November 2025, Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity announced that Luxembourg-supported NGO Friendship had won the Earthshot 2025 award in the “Fix Our Climate” category.
The award from Earthshot, chaired by the UK’s Prince William, is considered the world’s highest environmental award and the win represented a historic first for an NGO from Bangladesh and Luxembourg and was presented during a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday 5 November.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, the NGO won the award for its integrated and holistic climate adaptation model that considers seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Friendship was also recognised for its innovative, integrated development and climate adaptation model, based on four fundamental commitments: saving lives, reducing poverty, adapting to climate change and empowering people.
Since 2018, Friendship’s mangrove reforestation project has been a flagship initiative of this integrated model. The solution was tested with the support of the Luxembourg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, as part of its international climate finance strategy. Reforestation was able to expand thanks to private donors from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, including Raiffeisen Bank, which contributed to financing the planting of 60,000 trees through the use of their credit cards by their customers, an initiative also carried out in partnership with the Hëllef fir d’Natur Foundation. Mangroves strengthen the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities.
The ministry noted that these ecosystems represent one of the most effective natural defences and the Friendship restoration model has proven successful and can be deployed on a larger scale. Luxembourg’s pioneering partnership provided the necessary impetus to test and refine this nature-based solution, which has since demonstrated its effectiveness and its ability to strengthen climate resilience. In concrete terms, to date, the project has enabled the planting of over 650,000 trees across more than 200 hectares near the Sundarbans in southern Bangladesh, protecting 60 km of dykes. These mangroves protect more than 125,000 people from cyclones and storms, while ensuring the livelihoods of nearly 3,000 households through ecosystems managed by local communities.
The project also strengthens the blue carbon ecosystem, acting as a significant carbon sink (15,000 tonnes of CO2 removed from the atmosphere due to the Friendship plantations) and contributing to a sustainable blue economy.
Accepting the award on behalf of Friendship, Runa Khan, the organisation’s founder, said: “It is a tremendous honour for us to be the first in Bangladesh to receive the Earthshot Award. This distinction celebrates the resilience and innovation of marginalised communities in Bangladesh. Our success is collective and especially that of the people with and for whom we work. This award reinforces our commitment and responsibility to pursue our mission with even more passion.”
