The Zayed Future Energy Prize has given $4 million in awards to organizations addressing climate change, including $1.5 million to Ceres, a Boston-based group of institutional investors working to make U.S. insurers more aware of their risks from warming.

The prize provided by Abu Dhabi, the capital of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, awarded recognition or cash prizes to eight applicants, including four high schools that proposed projects to advance renewable energy and other environmental benefits.

Ceres won the category for a nongovernmental organization that "has direct impact on the renewable energy and sustainability industries." The group won for its efforts to push the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to disclose climate risks, for mobilizing the insurance industry to take action on climate and extreme weather, for supporting regulations through its Investor Network on Climate Risk that helped close coal-fired power plants, and for developing economic analysis to support strong fuel economy standards in the United States.

"In order to tackle the global challenge of climate change, we must expect even bolder action from investors, businesses and policymakers," Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres, said in a statement.

"We will use the Prize to expand international investor leadership on clean energy and to grow our ongoing work with leading companies that are striving to integrate sustainability into their operations by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency and sourcing renewable energy," she added.

Other winners include Siemens LLC; D.light Design, a U.S.-based manufacturer of solar lighting; and Jose Goldemberg, a Brazilian physicist and expert on energy. Siemens, a global company, received recognition for its work on sustainability, while D.Light Design was awarded $1.5 million and Goldemberg received $500,000 as a lifetime achievement prize.

The four high schools, from Mexico, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, received up to $100,000 each.

"The future of energy is one of the greatest challenges facing mankind today, and is a key to defending against one of humanity's greatest threats: serious and irreversible climate change," says a website promoting the prize. "New, innovative energy solutions are urgently needed to meet this challenge, and Abu Dhabi, one of the world's major energy providers, is taking a leadership role in finding the right solutions."