The city of Barcelona is today revealed as a 2026 Finalist of The Earthshot Prize, the world’s most prestigious environmental award, for turning one of Europe’s most intensively used urban coastlines into a global blueprint for climate adaptation for other cities to replicate. 

The Earthshot Prize, founded by Prince William in 2020, recognises solutions from different geographies, sectors and stages in their life cycle, dedicated to solving our planet’s greatest environmental challenges. Now past the halfway point of the Earthshot decade, The Earthshot Prize in 2026 is celebrating leadership from all corners of the globe, as people turn environmental ambition into action at scale. 

Nominated in the Revive Our Oceans Earthshot category, the city of Barcelona’s seafront transformation includes coastal resilience, nature-based solutions, public space and water management. As coastal cities face increasingly severe and similar challenges of sea-level rise, stronger storms, flooding, biodiversity loss and extreme heat, and with ten per cent of the world’s population living in coastal zones, Barcelona is leading the way in its response.   

As a 2026 Finalist, The Earthshot Prize will work with the city of Barcelona to help accelerate the replication of climate adaptation solutions across coastal cities through boosting international visibility and knowledge-sharing opportunities, and connecting with other cities, researchers, governments and practitioners working on coastal resilience, nature-based solutions and climate adaptation. 

Prince William, President and Founder of The Earthshot Prize, said: “Every year, our Finalists give me renewed optimism. They show us that, even as the environmental challenges remain urgent, extraordinary people around the world are already proving that progress is possible. Seeing solutions work gives us all confidence to act. When they succeed, they inspire others and accelerate change. I’m proud to welcome these 15 Finalists to the Earthshot Prize community and look forward to celebrating their stories in Mumbai this November.” 

The city of Barcelona’s Climate Action Plan is backed by €1.8 billion in public investment through to 2030, the largest climate budget in the city’s history. Separately, as part of Pla Litoral, the city of Barcelona’s ten-year strategy, the city is undertaking more than 60 projects to adapt its coastline to climate change, with €150 million of this funding dedicated to transforming the seafront in Sant Martí, a district on Barcelona’s northeastern coastline. 

The plan will create 22 hectares (roughly the size of 31 football pitches) of climate and heat-adapted public space – part of a blue-green corridor integrating restored marine habitats, natural coastal protection and waterfront access. Walking and cycling routes, sports and play areas, and improved beach services will benefit the five million people visiting the coastline each year, while supporting Barcelona’s growing blue economy cluster. By embedding the programme in the city of Barcelona’s long-term budgets, infrastructure plans and maintenance systems, the work can continue beyond individual projects or changes in political leadership. 

At the heart of this work is Mar Bella, on the Sant Martí seafront and a flagship site of Pla Litoral. Instead of repeatedly rebuilding a vulnerable shoreline, the city is intentionally moving parts of the waterfront inland, including relocating a popular seafront football pitch, so wider beaches can operate as natural coastal infrastructure, absorbing wave energy and creating more space for storms, erosion and rising sea levels. 

The work in the city of Barcelona is helping the world reach a positive tipping point¹ – a threshold in a system beyond which change becomes self-propelling. Developed and driven through extensive participation of the community, this transformation will strengthen a coastline used by 1.6 million people each year. Through these actions, it is creating a blueprint for other cities, helping advance a global tipping point for climate resilient infrastructure. The coastal programme is especially significant given that all G20 countries need to have climate-resilient infrastructure standards in place by 2030 to create the necessary momentum towards this tipping point. 

Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona, said: “Being selected as an Earthshot Prize Finalist recognises a choice the City of Barcelona has made: to make climate a core policy. This means not simply to defend the coast, but to adapt with nature and improve the waterfront for everyone. That choice has never been more important. This summer, Barcelona recorded its highest temperature in more than a century, while the Mediterranean is warming around 20% faster than the global average. Cities like ours must learn to live with climate change while protecting the places and communities that define them. The Earthshot Prize can help us bring the lessons of Barcelona’s coastal resilience work to the rest of the world, build partnerships with cities, researchers and institutions, and strengthen the momentum needed to make integrated coastal adaptation standard practice. We are ready to share Barcelona’s experience, and to learn from others facing the same challenges.” 

María Buhigas, Chief City Architect of Barcelona, said: “The choice facing coastal cities is no longer whether to adapt, but how. The sea has always been core to Barcelona’s urban identity, and the city has chosen to give space back to the beach and to natural processes, while creating a healthier waterfront for nature and people to thrive together. This is not a defensive structure added to the edge of the city; it is a new piece of climate-resilient public infrastructure designed for everyone to enjoy.” 

By 2030, the city of Barcelona aims to integrate coastal protection, biodiversity, water management and public space across its coastline, including a continuous blue-green corridor from the Besòs to the Llobregat river. The coastal programme includes: 

• Mar Bella: The city of Barcelona will restore 1.8 kilometres of seafront, plant more than 2,700 climate-adapted trees, make over 60% of the area permeable and use around 17,000 tonnes of recycled material (roughly the weight of 1,100 double-decker buses). The project is expected to avoid 15,525 tonnes of CO2 while reducing flood and heat risk. 
• Sant Martí communities: The transformation will directly benefit around 240,000 residents in the northeast of the city, one of the most heat-vulnerable areas, where many people rely on free, accessible beaches as a vital refuge during increasingly severe heatwaves. More than 200 residents and stakeholders helped shape the design. 
• A new response to coastal risk: Severe storms in 2023 damaged the waterfront, while around 70% of the artificial sand added in 2010 has since disappeared. Rather than repeatedly replacing sand, the city of Barcelona is redesigning the coastline for rising seas, stronger storms and extreme heat.  
• Port Olímpic: Regeneration of a degraded seabed created habitat for more than 100 marine species within 12 months. 

The city of Barcelona’s next milestones include completion of the first phase of the promenade and the start of further construction phases.  

The city is also developing a blue-economy cluster as part of the wider Pla Litoral strategy. These initiatives, which are at different stages of development, include the Maritime Technology Park, BlueTechPort and Barcelona Sea of Science, and aim to connect research, enterprise, skills and ocean health. 

Its UNESCO recognition as a hub for the sustainable blue economy strengthens Barcelona’s role as a place where coastal solutions can be developed, tested and shared. Through C40, ICLEI, Eurocities and the EU Mission Cities programme, the city of Barcelona aims to turn the Mar Bella transformation into a practical model for coastal cities worldwide. 

This year’s 15 Finalists were selected from The Earthshot Prize’s database of nearly 7,000 nominations across 169 countries, supported by a global network of over 363 nominators, and an Expert Advisory Panel of more than 150 specialists, alongside assessment and research by The Earthshot Prize’s selection team and partners. 

They join a community of 75 Finalists supported since 2020, whose work has collectively avoided or captured more than 18 million tonnes of CO₂e, protected or restored 58 million hectares of land and 85 million hectares of ocean and coastline, removed or avoided 465,000 tonnes of waste, saved 21 million tonnes of water and improved air quality in regions home to 600 million people. 

Aligned with the five Earthshots: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate – the Finalists will be considered by Prince William and fellow members of The Earthshot Prize Council, with five Winners announced at the 2026 Awards Night in Mumbai, India. 

The Prize Council includes Prince William; Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah; Cate Blanchett; Indra Nooyi; José Andrés; Christiana Figueres; Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim; Wanjira Mathai; Nemonte Nenquimo; Gisele Bündchen; Luisa Neubauer; Naoko Yamazaki; Ernest Gibson; and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. 

To find out more about this year’s Finalists, visit: https://earthshotprize.org/