The Underground Climate Heroes: Why Fungi Deserved the "Environmental Nobel Prize"

While world leaders debate carbon capture technologies and engineers design massive machines to pull CO2 from the atmosphere, evolutionary biologist Dr.

Toby Kiers has been studying a solution that's been working for 400 million years: fungi.

Kiers, from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, has won the 2026 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement—often called the "Nobel Prize for climate"—for her groundbreaking research into mycorrhizal fungi networks. These underground fungal threads, invisible to most of us, form partnerships with plant roots and store vast amounts of carbon while boosting biodiversity across entire ecosystems.

The $250,000 prize recognizes research that could fundamentally change how we approach climate solutions. Kiers has revealed that these fungal networks don't just store carbon—they actively trade nutrients between plants, communicate environmental threats, and maintain forest resilience in ways that make them essential climate allies we've been ignoring.

Her work demonstrates that protecting and enhancing natural fungal networks could be one of our most powerful climate tools. Unlike mechanical carbon capture, these biological systems improve themselves over time, require no energy input, and provide multiple environmental benefits beyond carbon storage.

The timing couldn't be more critical. As climate deadlines loom and technological solutions struggle with scale and cost, Kiers offers evidence that some of our best climate tools already exist—we just need to stop destroying them and start nurturing them instead.

Key Facts

• Dr. Toby Kiers, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, wins $250,000 Tyler Prize 2026
• Mycorrhizal fungi networks have existed for 400 million years
• Fungi can store vast amounts of carbon in soil systems
• Networks boost biodiversity and ecosystem resilience
• Tyler Prize often called the "Nobel Prize for environmental science"

Why This Matters

The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, established in 1973, recognizes individuals whose environmental work benefits humanity. Previous winners include climate scientists, conservation biologists, and environmental policy pioneers. Kiers represents a new generation of researchers focused on biological climate solutions.

Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with over 90% of plant species, creating vast underground networks that scientists are only beginning to understand. Climate policy has traditionally focused on reducing emissions and technological carbon capture, often overlooking these natural systems that have been sequestering carbon since long before humans existed.

What We Don't Know Yet

Fungal network research is still emerging, and we don't fully understand how to optimize these systems for maximum carbon storage. Climate change itself threatens fungal networks through temperature increases, soil disruption, and altered precipitation patterns. The networks are also vulnerable to agricultural practices, urban development, and pollution.

Scaling fungal-based climate solutions requires protecting existing networks and understanding how to establish them in degraded areas—challenges that may take decades to fully solve.