The Earth Prize 2025: 16-year-old from Brazil named Central and South America Winner in $100K global competition for his city-cooling solutions

• The Earth Prize is the world’s largest environmental competition and ‘ideas incubator’ for 13-19-year-olds, empowering young people with mentorship and $100K funding
• Seven winning teams will be announced each day this week, representing the regions of North America, Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Oceania and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East
• Each team receives $12.5K to develop and implement their idea
• The Central & South America Winner developed ‘EcoAção Brasil’, a tech-driven solution using AI, satellites & data analysis to plant strategic greenery & cool overheated cities
• EcoAction is the first winner of The Earth Prize to come from Brazil
• The public vote is now open crown the Global Winner on Earth Day (April 22)

In an effort to combat the increasingly frequent extreme heat suffered in cities, a 16-year-old climate scientist has been named as the Central and South America Winner of The Earth Prize 2025. Isaque Carvalho Borges is the creator behind EcoAção Brasil (EcoAction Brazil), an initiative using AI, satellites and data analysis to cool overheated cities.

Based in Palmas, central Brazil, Isaque regularly experiences temperatures soaring to 50°C (122°F). As the city has rapidly urbanised over the past 35 years, so has the heat - historical data dating back to 1990 reveals a clear link between urban growth and rising temperatures. EcoAção Brasil leverages satellite data to identify heat-prone areas, while AI and feature engineering predict where cooling efforts (like planting trees) will be most effective, such as between multiple ‘heat islands’. These green areas provide shade, evapotranspiration, and albedo (sunlight reflection), helping to mitigate the urban heat effect more effectively.

Now with funding from The Earth Prize, Isaque plans to expand across Palmas and into other cities, by recruiting more individuals who want to implement the technology locally. This will provide valuable data to train the AI, while also scaling the initiative globally.

EcoAção Brasil impressed The Earth Prize’s expert jury with the final pitch, having excelled in the programme’s incubation and mentorship phases, and will now receive $12.5K to scale up the idea. 16-year-old Isaque Carvalho Borges reflected on the significance of being named the Winner for Central and South America:

The Earth Prize aims to empower the next generation with all the tools they need to develop their eco solutions for real life impact, including one-to-one mentoring, learning resources and funding of $100K for the winning teams to scale up. Since 2021, The Earth Prize has reached over 15,000 young people across 160 countries and territories, and awarded $500K to the top teams.

Previous applicants have garnered global media attention in outlets such as Forbes, Business Insider, EuroNews, Positive.News and UN Today, and continue to scale up their solutions after the competition has ended. For instance, team Delavo (Winners of The Earth Prize 2023), who invented a cutting-edge filter that recycles up to 90% of toxic laundry waste water, partnered with a national manufacturer and applied for a patent to make their solution a reality.

The Earth Prize was started by The Earth Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization based in Geneva, as a way to empower and educate young people to tackle environmental challenges. As young people live through and observe extreme weather events such as the LA wildfires, many are mobilised to act - choosing to create solutions for our planet rather than march in protest.

A recent study showed that 59% of youth and young adults are very or extremely worried about climate change, and more than 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.

The Public Vote to decide the Global Winner is now open until Tuesday April 22 (Earth Day): https://www.theearthprize.org/vote